must pay the full SALARY

The companies grouped in the Argentine Chamber of Rapid Service Establishments for Sandwich and Related Expenditures remain firm in their decision to reduce wages and cancel benefits with the excuse of the coronavirus pandemic.

His argument is based on “non-presenteeism”, used by companies such as McDonald’s, Burger King, Mustard and Starbucks, among others.

But this collides with article 8 of the decree of necessity and urgency that established compulsory isolation, and that establishes that in eThe period “workers in the private sector shall be entitled to the full enjoyment of their normal income.”

This conflict reached the Ministry of Labor headed by Claudio Moroni, where actions were defined to counter the corporate decision and ruled in favor of the workers’ claim, reopening a negotiation on April salaries.

This topic covers some 25,000 employees across the country from companies such as McDonald’s, Burguer King, Mustard, Starbucks, Wendy’s and KFC, among others, but it also reaches other sectors such as the Garbarino home appliance sales chain or the park of Nerverland amusements.

The surge was triggered by McDonald’s and Burguer, but the trend was quickly continued by Wendy’s and Mustard.. The particular thing is that in recent days other actors in the commercialization of food joined the chain of pizzerias La Continental, the Starbucks coffee shops and, even, franchisors of the ice cream brand Freddo.

In the case of the last one, and as reported to iProfessional union sources, the controllers of premises in different Buenos Aires neighborhoods paid only 65 percent of each salary for March. Franchise owners of the ice cream parlor have already anticipated to their employees that, as a result of the total isolation established by the Government these days, they do not know whether they will be able to pay the salaries for April.

In addition to paying a fragment, the Freddo’s franchisors also banished the amounts for presenteeism. All this, while a good part of its employees had to continue attending to the rapidly expanding premises of the covid-19. At best, only to dispatch a handful of deliverys.

The labor portfolio had called a videoconference to the Chamber of Rapid Service Establishments and Expenditure of Sandwiches and Related and to the confectioners’ union. In that instance, the officials warned that “the discount” that the companies exercised on the salaries of their employees did not have legal support.

Subsequently, there was another chapter of the discussion to urge companies to complete salaries and set a criterion regarding the next liquidation, in almost continuing the social and mandatory isolation provided by the Government, which at this point is practically safe and would be announced in the next few hours.

“The companies justify their actions arguing that in the labor agreements there is an article that would allow cuts in the event of fire, closure or closure of premises for a greater cause. The reality is that they are breaking a presidential decree which says that wages must be paid in full, “said Marcelo Gasso, union secretary of the Federation of Bakers.

The companies had agreed among themselves to pay less than half of the workers’ wages, protected in an alleged breach of presenteeism, an argument that conflicts with article 8 of the necessity and urgency decree that established the mandatory isolation.

In the same, it is established that in that period “the workers of the private sector will have the right to the full enjoyment of their habitual income in the terms established by the regulations of the Ministry of Labor.”

That text will be restrictively applied in terms of March wages, which must be paid in full by fast food chains.. While work has already started on an agreement between the union and the chamber for April salaries.

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