Overview
- After more than 13 hours of debate, senators approved the bill 42–30 and sent it to the Chamber of Deputies for the next stage of debate.
- Demonstrations outside Congress turned violent as some protesters threw stones and Molotov cocktails and police used tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannon, with arrests and injuries reported and the security minister vowing to identify perpetrators.
- The reform would ease hiring and firing rules, alter vacation policies, allow extending workdays from eight to 12 hours and impose new limits on the right to strike, with earlier drafts also pointing to reduced severance pay and payments in kind.
- Lawmakers amended the text by scrapping a proposed cut to income tax rates and incorporating concessions sought by unions, and reporting indicates a provision enabling salary deposits into virtual wallets was also dropped.
- President Javier Milei frames the overhaul as a way to reduce bureaucracy and boost formal employment in a labor market where roughly 40% of workers lack formal contracts, while unions and Peronist opponents warn of an erosion of protections.