Best fix Employment may not be of benefit: If labor judges and judicial experts do not apply the rules, employing the worker will remain expensive, complex and very risky. This is not a pessimistic projection, but rather what happens in the workplace risk system. In 2017, the law was reformed with broad consensus, but the judicial system ignores it and puts under surveillance a system that has proven effective and protects more than 10 million workers in Argentina and 1 million employers.
Expert reports signed by an expert admitted to intensive care; the people Those who play football or do motocross and triathlons while on court are classified by experts as disabled; The sprains recovered in 20 days and turned into multi-million peso sentences, including psychological disability. Cases that reflect the profound deterioration in judicial performance that is causing the collapse of the system.
The irony here is that the collapse affects a very well-functioning system. Argentina has succeeded in reducing occupational deaths by 80% – thus saving 19,000 lives – and accidents by 55%, while providing comprehensive and immediate benefits 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and lifetime coverage when necessary. Moreover, its design is in line with the latest models in the world: integrated prevention with immediate comprehensive care and insurance base. Umbrellas for employers and real protection for workers. The cancer that is killing the system lies in the lawsuits that multiply without logic.
The year 2025 will end with 130,000 new labor lawsuits due to risks business, which is in addition to the stock of 280,000 existing as of December 2024. This means: represents business risk experiences Half of the country’s labor claims. This folder does not arise from a system failure, but from The judiciary’s continued non-compliance with Law No. 27348, which ordered the establishment of forensic medicine bodies to ensure consistent technical standards. Without it, inflated expert opinions, “commission” fees, and update rates that encourage judiciary proliferate. “Arbitration” is a business limited to the few, at the expense of thousands of companies and millions of workers.
It is necessary to make it clear: there is no reform exhaustion – Whatever its scope – It will be able to achieve its goals if the occupational risk system continues to be subject to this judicial dynamic. No update is possible when the convolution results in a sentence equivalent to the value of an SME. Legal predictability is not an accessory condition: it is the essence that allows investment, contracting and production.
The call is concrete: justice must comply with the law and ensure action Forensic medical bodies and restore technical coherence to decisions affecting employment, productive activity and sustainability of the system. The occupational risk system has proven to be effective, modern and preventive. Taking care of it is not a sectoral interest; It is an essential public policy for the country’s development.
In addition, the experience of these years should serve the reform The work we started discussing. Argentina has an opportunity to organize, strengthen and modernize its labor market. This path begins with resolving the judicial distortion that today brings under control a successful system that has saved thousands of lives. Moreover, distortion poses a threat to any further reform: everything can change in the law, so that everything remains the same in the labor courts.
Only with clear rules and fairness to adhere to will it be possible to accompany her The goal of building a dynamic, competitive and sustainable labor market. More and better work, not less.
President of the Arts Union