Cambiemos and the creation of new institutions related to work

Abstract

In December 2015, there was a presidency handover in Argentina. After a dozen years of Kirchnerist governments, Cambiemos coalition, led by Mauricio Macri, reached the Executive branch. This change in the ruling party implied a new way of conceiving society-State relations and meant, among other matters, the state capture by the elite and powerful business groups. This article focuses its analysis on the preeminence of these actors inside the State and their capacity to influence the way in which the matters related to the world of work were problematised and dealt with. Throughout these pages, we argue that the new government staff held three basic premises when addressing the problems referred to work: to consider that problems of economic growth derive from the rigidity of existing labour laws and from out-of-date collective labour agreements; to conceive that both labour informality and the lack of new job opportunities are due to high labour burdens; and finally, to encourage the creation of a new economic actor - “the entrepreneur”. This figure is the prototype of the undercover worker that, deprived of guarantees and social protection, relies only on their individual abilities to generate an income.