Two First Instance Labor Courts ruled against the Emergency Decree No. 669/19.

Firstly, on October 9, 2019, First Instance Labor Court No. 76 ruled in favor of the precautionary measure requested in a protective action filed by the Buenos Aires Bar Association against the Emergency Decree No. 669/19. The resolution issued in the case “Buenos Aires Public Bar Association v. National State Executive Power re. Protective action” decided to suspend the application of the Decree until the protective action is resolved.

In the same date, First Instance Labor Court No. 41 issued a sentence in case “Fernandez Miguel Angel v. Experta ART S.A. re. Accident”, and declared the Decree unconstitutional and unconventional.

The Decree, issued on September 30, 2019, had modified the update rate of the basic monthly income used for the calculations of the compensations granted to the employees for definite labor disability or death, established in Section 12 of the Labor Risks Law No. 24,557. It had provided that, from the date of the first appearance of the inability until the date on the ART has to provide the compensation for determination of the definite labor incapacity, the basic monthly income would be updated by application of the RIPTE rate (which is a lower rate), instead of the active annual nominal general portfolio rate due thirty (30) days from the Banco de la Nación Argentina (which had been a higher rate lately). It is important to highlight that this rate had been introduced to the Labor Risks Law in 2017 with the enactment of Law No. 27,348.