Almost three months after production resumed following an agreement with the union, Lácteos Verónica, with plants in Totoras, Lehmann and Suardi, Santa Fe, was again involved in a labor dispute. Since yesterday, Workers initiated a task freeze in view of the alleged non-payment of salariesa situation that once again paralyzed his activity. The company employs around 500 people.
According to the union Atilra, The action was taken because the company stopped making weekly payments agreed to last Septemberwhen a long-standing conflict was resolved and production resumed. “If they don’t get paid, they don’t work.” summarized from the trade union organization.
The agreement signed in Santa Fe was concluded an exceptional weekly payment systemon Friday, which already implied an irregularity tolerated by the workers to allow the continuity of the activity. However, These payments were stopped for at least three weeks and the agreement expired last week without the company fulfilling its obligations, they said. The company has not yet responded to a query. THE NATION.
In addition to the salary delay, the union pointed this out The company does not pay dues or contributions nor social security. Added Failure to fulfill an obligation to pay a debt through social workeven though an embargo was in effect. “They didn’t stick to anything that was agreed upon,” they said.
The union assured that the measure was legally protected and could not be equated with a strike. As described in detail, Retention of tasks is based on the principle of “except for non-compliance”.which are provided for in the Civil and Commercial Code and are also applicable to labor law.
“In a bilateral contract, if one of the parties fails to fulfill its obligations, it cannot require the other to fulfill its obligations.. And of course, given this initial breach, the other party is under no obligation to do so.” they explained.
They highlighted that In labor law, this value is referred to as task commitment. and it is different from a strike. “Although this is a collective action of incapacitation, it is not a strike. Mandatory arbitration or a similar instrument cannot be applied here because You cannot force an employee to perform tasks if they have not been paid their wages.“they noted.”It’s a legal question, but also common sense“, they emphasized from the trade union organization.
The new conflict takes place in an extremely delicate financial context. When he presented the crisis prevention procedurethe company had stated that it was experiencing a sharp decline in its activity levels: Production increased from around 800,000 liters per day to just 180,000which generates high idle capacity which directly affected their finances. In this context The company even sold its central property and made drastic decisions about its structure.with the aim of maintaining operations and avoiding closure.
In this context Lácteos Verónica has so far returned 3,698 checks for $13,231,924,644.93 due to lack of fundsaccording to the Central Bank of Debtors (BCRA). The extent of this liability illustrates the extent of the crisis that one of the country’s most traditional dairy companies is experiencing, according to industry sources.
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