Amendments To The Labor Risks Law

Even though Law No. 26,773 maintains the current structure of the Labor Risks Law No. 24,557 and amends only a few of its sections, it represents a clear step forward in the legal field of the labor risks regime.

On October 26, 2012, Law No. 26,773 that modifies the current Labor Risks Law No. 24,557 (hereinafter referred to as "LRL"), was published in the Official Gazette. The bill finally approved was the one submitted by the Executive Branch to the Argentine Congress.

Law No. 26,773's approval was criticized by certain union entities and has been received with relief by business associations.

Even though Law No. 26,773 is limited to modify only a few sections of the LRL, by keeping its current structure, it represents a clear step forward in the legal field of the labor risks regime. The LRL has shown, many times, that it was not effective in order to give reasonable and dynamic solutions to the problems arising within the scope of labor accidents and professional illnesses. Such lack of effectiveness has led the Argentine Supreme Court to establish certain interpretation guidelines of such law, throughout precedents such as "Castillo", "Aquino" and "Milone", in a clear attempt to amend the outdated law.

Law No. 26,773 brings predictability to the corporate field, since the LRL's deficiencies triggered many different judicial rulings which –unintentionally- brought an absolute lack of security while repairing misfortune events since the employees did not clearly understand what their rights were and the companies did not know precisely what were their obligations; all of this derived in significant extra costs and a total lack of judicial security to resolve situations derived from labor misfortunes.

Hence, one of the most important changes brought by Law No. 26,773 is the elimination of what was locally known as "double track" ("doble vía") and its replacement for an "exclusive option". From now on, this means that employees who suffered an accident or a professional illness will have to choose between collecting the statutory severances granted by the Labor Risks Insurance Companies or otherwise taking legal actions and request the application of civil law at Court. The possibility of accumulating severances is finally eliminated; this was happening in reality, despite the opinion of certain scholars to the contrary. The elimination of the double track will necessarily lead to a significant reduction of the so-called "trial industry".

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