The Different Meanings of Formalisation. Experiments from the South: The Case of Argentina

POBLETE, LORENA

Londres

Workshop; SOCIETY OF LEGAL SCHOLARS ANNUAL SEMINAR SERIES 2016. Re-imagining labour law for development: informal work in the global North and South; 2016

SOAS University of London

Informality is a structural feature of labour market in developing countries. In Argentina, informal work regularly represents -at least- one third of working people. During the ?90, informality rate arises to 35%, climbing up to 45% in 2002. Nowadays, as the result of various formalisation policies, informality rate decrees. Therefore, 34% of workers do not have any legal contract. The informal sector is constituted of three main groups: employees working in small business, own-account workers and domestic workers.Since 1990, many laws seek to formalise the situation of this workers. Formalisation became for the first time an important issue for labour law. However, the underpinning of formalisation changed during the time. Between 1991 and 2001, in accordance with the Washington Consensus, formalisation and flexibility became part of the same equation. All laws conforming the Labour Reform promote labour flexibility in legal forms. That means flexibility within formal labour market. Since 2004, with the so-called "counter" Labour Reform, formalisation appears as the way to expand social protections. In line with ILO position, the main goal is to provide "decent work" to all workers.While motives justifying formalisation seems clearly differentiated in the two periods, the way in which formalisation was conceived by labour law and implemented appears more blur. From an historical perspective, this paper seeks to analyse different regulatory responses to informality. Analysing changes in labour law and in tax regulations, as well as parliaments debates, the main objective of this research is to study different legal experiments having the intention to formalise the situation of workers in the most precarious positions. The first one addressed own-account workers participating in informal labour market and employees working in small business. Thus, self-employed legal category was reshaped to include liberal professions as well as not qualified workers working part-time or even in occasional basis. The second experiment tried to attain paid domestic work formalisation. Using different strategies, the State try to implement a new regulation that recognized domestic workers the same rights of all workers. These experiments at the margins of labour market are accompanying by other policies address to the core. In May 2014, a new law focused on formalisation and prevention of labour frauds was approved. Law 26.940 became the framework for improving old experiments and setting new ones.