The double compensation expires on Friday and the government will not extend it

After more than two and a half years of validity, the double compensation for unfair dismissal will cease to apply from Friday and the government has no plans to extend it. This will be the case since the last extension defined last December extended the decreed employment emergency and the compensation benefit, effective from 13 December 2019, after the hiring of Alberto Fernández until 30 June of this year.

The authorities believe that it will not be necessary to renew the decree in view of the recovery of the economy, the improvement of labor indicators and the gradual exit that began last year from the emergency regime sustained during the pandemic. “There is nothing to change, it is already over. In the last decree a gradual exit was resolved, today I do not see the possibility of extending it, it is not under discussion “, say the official sources.

The latest official figures show an improvement: there are 1.5 million unemployed or 7% unemployment in the first quarter, down from 10.2% in the same period of 2021 due to the increase in activity and occupation. That way, the employment rate has exceeded pre-pandemic levels and quarantine, and reached record levels, largely due to the increase in unregistered work, which grew 3.5 points year-over-year.

In this context, which began to make itself felt at the end of the year, in December the government defined a gradual reduction of the double compensation. Therefore, in addition to the corresponding remuneration, it established an increase of 75% of this amount, from January to February 28, of 50% from March to April 30 and of 25% from May to June 30. At the same time, it canceled the ban on dismissal without just cause, in force since March 2022.

The suspension of the redundancy fund was adopted at the beginning of the pandemic and, together with the preventive provision of greater compensation for dismissal without just cause, part of measures to contain the rise in unemployment since 2019 and then the health crisis. Due to Covid and restrictions, 4 million jobs were lost in 2020 which were recovered in the third quarter of last year alone.

Already in January 2021the government has begun to ease the emergency labor regime through decrees that excluded hires after 13 December 2019 and the national public sector from both benefits. And on the other hand, set a limit of $ 500,000 for the duplication of compensationan amount that remained in force last December, when it was decided to gradually abandon the employment emergency.

In view of the end of the provision, the former senator and labor lawyer, Hector Recaldehas warned in the past few hours on his Twitter account that “the extension of the Public Emergency Decree in the field of work is essential which established the prohibition of dismissal and double pay “.” The causes that gave rise to it have not only not ceased, but have worsened in some sectors, “he added.

In the government they do not see that the latest measures have favored layoffs in the labor market and in companies they do not believe that there will be major changes in the future, even if some business consultants recognize that the gradual reduction of this benefit was a “stimulus” for accelerated exits and reduced company costs, as employees received less compensation.