Court ruling

Judge rejects class action against government's pensions decree

Judge rules against a request from a group of some 7,000 retirees, who claimed the Executive's move to adjust the formula used to pension payments was unconstitutional.

The defender of the elderly, Eugenio Semino, during the press conference of the collective protection asking for the unconstitutionality of the decree that modifies the retirement mobility in February 21, 2020. Foto: NA/Juan Vargas

A judge that oversees social security disputes has rejected a class action lawsuit against President Alberto Fernández's decree that adjusted how pension payments are decided.

Judge Silvia Saino ruled against a request from a group of some 7,000 retirees who claimed the Executive's move to adjust the formula used to pension payments was unconstitutional.

In a ruling issued from Federal First Instance Social Security Court N° 9, Saino said the claims could be presented individually and not as a class-action suit. 

The lawsuit had been filed under the auspices of the Ombudsman for the Elderly Eugenio Semino.

In a conversation with Perfil, constitutionalist lawyer Andrés Gil Dominguez, who presented the appeal together with the ombudsman for the elderly, Eugenio Semino, declared that "the ruling ignores the jurisprudence of the Supreme Court of Justice and that social security is not patrimonial but food security."

"It is ... a sentence that condemns retirees to be unable to access the service of justice. The judge's case is anything but. We will appeal to the House and via per saltum to the Supreme Court of Justice," he added.

- TIMES/PERFIL