CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

The study of employment relations in Chile and Argentina has been the outcome of research in various disciplines particularly sociology, political science, law, and history. This broadly defined scholarship has followed similar lines of analysis in both countries, reflecting their parallel socio-economic transformations and corresponding changes in employment relations actors and institutions. From the rise of import substituting industrialisation and developmentalist populist regimes in the 1930s, which provided the base upon which classic employment relations systems began to take shape, to the crises and replacement of such regimes by military dictatorships and the introduction of neoliberalism in the 1970s, which redefined the relationship between capital and labour. A review of the literature has identified two main foci of study that roughly overlap with these two socio-economic eras. A more traditional line of enquiry has focused on the centrality of labour movements in the making of history, politics and socio-economic development of each country and has been particularly concerned with examining the shifting relations between trade unions, the state, and political parties. A more contemporary focus of study has concentrated on the imposition of neoliberalism, transitions to democracy, labour reform as well as on the implications of new managerial practices on the dynamics of employment relations. In this chapter we aim to provide a modest introduction to the main similarities and differences in employment relations between Chile and Argentina. The first section provides a historical account of these countries traditional employment relations in the context of import-substituting industrialisation. The second section discusses the nature and impact of the imposition of neoliberal restructuring. The third section focuses on novel worker responses to the increasing divide between formal and informal employment. A short conclusion will follow.