The Dispute Resolution Mechanisms: The Case of Domestic Workers in Mendoza (Argentina)

POBLETE, LORENA

Toronto

Congreso; Law & Society Annual Meeting 2018; 2018

Law & Society Association

For nearly six decades and until Law 26,844 was approved in 2013, the 1956 Special Regime (Decree-Law 326/56) was the main legislation regulating domestic work in Argentina. Although this was the first specific legal framework for the sector as a whole, it was highly restrictive in comparison to the general labor regime, which is regulated in Argentina by the Labor Employment Act (Law 20.744/76). The aim of the new law passed in 2013 (Law 26,844) was to ensure that domestic workers had the same guaranteed rights as other employees under the general employment regime and to expand the scope of the law to include all domestic workers, given that the new law acknowledged anyone performing at least one hour of work per week as a domestic worker. With regards to the resolution of labor conflicts, the new law slightly modified the arbitration body known as the Domestic Work Council established in 1956. This specific administrative jurisdiction unique to the domestic work sector answered to the Ministry of Labor and Social Security and its function was to resolve conflicts between domestic workers and their employers. The structure of the council was based on the model of other administrative jurisdictions entrusted with resolving individual conflicts among employees. This type of conflict resolution represented the standard approach to labor conflicts in Argentina given that labor courts did not appear until 1944-1949. For this reason, the Domestic Work Council functioned like a first instance court. Parties could appeal its sentences to the National Labor Court. Although the council´s jurisdiction was limited to the city of Buenos Aires, the 1956 Regime established that the provinces would implement their own dispute resolution mechanism through provincial laws. As the movement for domestic workers rights began to attract attention both nationally and internationally and the efforts to establish an international labor standard began at the ILO, new bills were proposed all over Argentina. From 2009 until 2011, thirteen bills to reform the regulation of domestic work were introduced to the national congress. These set out to provide protection for domestic workers, including employment accident insurance, maternity leave and collective bargaining in the establishment of the minimum wage. At that time, as part of this wave of recognizing domestic workers? rights, the province of Mendoza established its first specific dispute resolution mechanism for domestic workers. Following the model established by the 1956 regime, an administrative tribunal was established by provincial law 8,145 in 2009. This case study is very interesting because it represents a late implementation of the 1956 regime just as the expansion of domestic workers rights is at the center of the political debate. Thus, this administrative jurisdiction aims to give domestic workers direct access to justice.Focusing in Mendoza?s case, this paper seeks to understand the role played by this administrative tribunal in recognizing domestic workers rights. Records from 2016 to 2017 will be analyzed from a quantitative perspective. The corpus includes voluntary agreements, conciliatory agreements and decisions.