Argentina, one of the countries with the greatest labor conflict

Argentina It is one of the countries with the highest level of workplace conflict. In the last ten yearsevery worker has lost – on average – almost one working day (8 hours) per year due to vigorous measures that led to the interruption of work. While in the rest of the world it was only half an hour a year.

The comparison – carried out by the Research Institute of the Cordoba Exchange on the basis of official data – seeks to represent a graph what is the economic loss measured in working days which have been lost due to conflicts. The calculation is obtained by multiplying the number of conflicts that led to work stoppages in the decade (in the case of Argentina, out of 27,000, 11,000 led to work stoppages) by the number of workers involved. From there comes the number of lost working days in total. For example, if 10.6 million working days are lost in a year, involving 10 million workers, it can be deduced that, on average, one day a year.

According to these data, Argentina was -between 2010 and 2019- 14 times more confrontational than the world average. Because among all the countries examined, the average is 60 lost days per 1,000 workers (a scale of 1,000 workers is taken to make comparisons), while in Argentina 850 days have been added in the last decade.

Some countries with a high level of conflict are South Africa, with an average of 582 days; El Salvador (459); Chile (268); France (109) and New Zealand (103), among others. On the other hand, in the countries where the incidence of labor conflicts is lowest, Australia is placed, with an average of 10 days; Lithuania (10) and Germany (7).

The survey was carried out on the information published by the Ministry of Labor of the Nation and were crossed with the daily GDP per worker, weighted according to the level of conflict in their sector. For the world, the numbers of the International Labor Organization (ILO) were taken.

Another conclusion of the report, Ariel Barraud, director of the Research Institute of the Cordoba Stock Exchange, points out that “if they had worked, the hours lost in Argentina would amount to about 5.3 billion dollars of added value for the entire economywithout taking into account the indirect impact.

“Although they have higher levels of protection and stability, public workers are those with the highest level of conflict. 90% of the working days lost in the last decade is explained by strikes at the three levels of the state, which employ one in three people in the country ”, highlights the report.

On average, a public employee loses 2.3 days of work per year, 16 times more than a private individual. Compared to the world, the Argentine public sector is 38 times more confrontational.

In the private area, an employee loses on average one hour of work per year; two to three times higher than the world average. The private employment conflict had its lowest – in the analyzed period – in 2019. So it was 50% higher than in the rest of the world. Despite restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it increased in 2020 and 2021, breaking the previous trend, according to this analysis.

The deterioration of real wages in the face of inflation explains this behavior. In 2019, 35% of private conflicts were nationwide. The figure has more than doubled (73%) in the past two years.

The the public administration, with 3,600 strikes in ten years, was the most confrontational; public health registered 1,900 and state education, 1,300. The only private activity that presented a level of conflict equivalent to the public one was transport, with 1,400 stops; the industry numbered 900.

In the analysis, according to the provinces, the report showed that, with 200 strikes per 100,000 inhabitants in this period, Santa Cruz was the most confrontational. In this province, 500 of the 700 strikes in the decade were in the state sector.

The province of Buenos Aires was the one that concentrated the most conflicts with 1,800 strikes recorded (due to the fact that it has a greater number of companies). The peak was in the period 2012-2015, with high interference from the provincial public sector. However, the level of conflict it presents with respect to its population is one of the lowest in the country.

Other jurisdictions such as Mendoza, the city of Buenos Aires, Santa Fe and Córdoba also have a number of conflicts per 100,000 inhabitants below the country’s average: 9, 18, 19 and 21 respectively.

“The Tierra del Fuego and the Chubut complete the podium, with about 100 conflicts for every 100,000 inhabitants each, while one step lower are Neuquén and Catamarca”, concludes the study.