The government’s last-minute decision to exclude an item from the labor reform project that affected union revenues brought some relief to the CGT. According to the initiative, which was officially announced today, The intention to abolish the so-called “solidarity quota” was excluded from the bill.This is the contribution that the employee who is not a member of the union makes to the union activity.
The previously circulated official draft envisaged the abolition of this type of contribution. This was one of the demands of the Minister for State Deregulation and Transformation, Federico Fallenegger.
The “solidarity quota” is agreed in the collective agreement with the agreement between the chambers of commerce and the main trade union in the sector as well as the approval of the Ministry of Labor. The issue that weighs on him is that the collection is mandatory and no consent is required. This happens especially in the state sector in all its areas: at the national, provincial and municipal levels.
But it also happens in the private sector: Hugo Moyano, for example, has been demanding a special contribution from employers for truck drivers’ social work for years. In this case it is $20,000 per worker, which generates an approximate income of $2,000 million for Oschoca, the truckers’ social work organization currently in crisis. This achievement of Moyano was approved by the Minister of Labor Julio Cordero.
According to the law it is Membership fee (between 1 and 3.5 percent of salary) is withheld from the employee’s payroll and the employer acts as the withholding agent, passing the money directly to the union.
The bill retains the withholding obligations, but requires employees to comply. The initiative speaks of “explicit compliance and an agreement between the parties”, but does not specify who these should be, whether the employee with his employer or the company with the union.
The other million-dollar fund that the unions manage is the health fund. Social work is funded through the Solidarity Redistribution Fund (FSR), administered by the Superintendency of Health Services and financed from the compulsory contribution withheld monthly from registered workers’ salaries.
The government reported that it would try to regulate union gathering, but through a different bill, not the one now being discussed in extraordinary sessions. A fact: In 2024, the deputies of La Libertad Avanza in the Labor Commission did not support an initiative by Pro and UCR that aimed to limit the mandates and collections of the unions.
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