companies want to pay the “suspended salary”

The “suspended salary”. That’s what they call it in large companies, where for these hours they are looking for a way out allow them to cushion the blow after the government banned layoffs for two months.

It happens that with factories stopped, for many companies the only alternative is to send workers home, suspended. Especially if the quarantine due to the Covid-19 pandemic extends beyond April 12, something that has not yet been ruled out among members of the Government or among businessmen.

“The suspended person’s salary is something that companies are discussing with the unions, because they cannot fire workers but They also have no margin for another month unemployed and paying 100% wages“They point out from the industry. And they assure that the idea” is to pay 75% of the salary, maximum. ”

What the law says

According to the law, when a company suspends its workers due to sharp drops in production or due to “force majeure”, it only pays them 50% of their wages. But this possibility has already been rejected outright by the unions, which are negotiating for these hours as close to 100%

“It will be between 65% and 75%” say sources close to the Argentine Industrial Union (UIA). And they assure that this strategy is the one They will seek to follow the largest companies, which are the ones that receive the least help from the Government when it comes to paying wages.

However, some businessmen still trust the possibility of the Government convening the Council of the Minimum Living and Mobile Wage. This was stated by Juan Madanes Quintanilla, president of Aluar, who pointed out that “we must have a cooperative attitude at such difficult times”.

In statements to Continental radio, the head of Aluar said that “the issue of remuneration has to do with the activity that is taking place.” And he proposed “convening the Salary Council, that would be a good way to help people subsist.” However, among the industrialists they do not believe that the Alberto Fernández administration is going to convene the Salary Council.

“The criteria that the government uses to design its assistance and aid policies have never been agreed with us at any time,” stressed one businessman.

New modality

Therefore, in the absence of dialogue with the Government, what large companies are doing at this time is to carry on negotiations with the unions to agree to suspend the staff, send them home and pay them between 65 and 75% of the salary.

“Big companies are going to try to do that: pay a maximum of 75% of salary and negotiate what will be paid from employer contributions. This strategy is much more difficult to apply for small and medium-sized companies, but in the case of large companies it seems to be the only way for now, “said one industrialist.

It is the alternative that for the time being finds more viable, since due to the height of the year in which we are, it is not time to advance vacations (they must be granted between October 1 and April 30 of each year). So suspensions may be the only alternative for big business for now. We will have to wait to see the reaction of the unions and, of course, the government itself.

Coronavirus worries unions

From Ecolatina they warned that since the Covid-19 pandemic reached Argentine territory and the Government decreed “social, preventive and mandatory isolation” to protect public health, the economic situation that the country is going through changed its nature.

“The negative consequences that these sanitary measures will have on economic activity are unknown because their duration is unknown, but it is certain that the union concern has changed its orientation,” the consultant stated.

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