A labour court in Argentina has suspended part of a decree issued by President Javier Milei that restricted the right to strike and expanded the number of “essential services” required to guarantee operations during industrial action.
The ruling upheld an injunction filed by the Confederación General del Trabajo (CGT), Argentina’s largest trade union federation.
The decision was issued by Judge Moira Fullana of the National Labour Court No. 3, who admitted the formal viability of the CGT's legal challenge and granted a precautionary measure to suspend the decree’s effects.
She confirmed the court’s jurisdiction in the case and allowed the existing strike legislation to remain in force while the broader constitutional challenge is considered.
The court ordered “to grant the requested precautionary measure and provisionally suspend the effects of Articles 2 and 3 of Emergency Decree 340/25,” which was signed and issued by Milei two weeks ago.
Prior to the decree, essential services included healthcare, hospitals, energy, water supply, and air traffic control.
The new regulation, in Articles 2 and 3, added maritime and river transport, port and customs services, education, telecommunications and others to the list.
It also created a new category of activities of “transcendental importance,” which included passenger transport services, construction and some gastronomic services.
Under the decree, essential services were required to continue functioning at 75 percent capacity, while those deemed of transcendental importance were to operate at 50 percent.
Previously, those levels were agreed upon by consensus.
Failure to comply could result in unions facing fines, sanctions or even the loss of their legal status, read the decree.
The measure sparked strong criticism from rights groups, major local trade unions, labour lawyer associations and legal experts, who argued that it curtailed the right to strike.
The CGT welcomed Monday’s ruling in a statement, declaring it would “continue to fight the battles necessary to guarantee and protect workers’ rights.”
The court emphasised that modifying the right to strike – guaranteed by Article 14 bis of the National Constitution – requires parliamentary debate.
The CGT argued that both chambers of Congress are currently in ordinary session, undercutting any claim of necessity and urgency required to justify emergency legislation. The ruling cited precedent from the Supreme Court stating that general references to economic crises are not sufficient to bypass constitutional procedures.
Rodolfo Aguiar, general secretary of the Asociación de Trabajadores del Estado (ATE) state-workers union, celebrated the decision. “The anti-strike decree has been stopped,” he said, adding that the ruling showed “there are still traces of democracy in our country.”
Aguiar called the decree an attack on fundamental rights and accused the Milei administration of trying to “set us back a hundred years.” He also argued that the Executive branch had failed to demonstrate any genuine emergency justifying the bypassing of Congress.
When Milei took office in December 2023, he issued a sweeping decree that included a labour chapter containing the same measures. However, in August 2024, the domestic courts suspended it on grounds of unconstitutionality. The Supreme Court is now expected to review the matter.
Since Milei’s inauguration, the CGT and other major trade union federations have staged three general strikes, the most recent of which took place on 10 April.
– TIMES/AFP/PERFIL
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