The Supreme Court gave a setback to the policy of the Buenos Aires government to sanction teachers who carry out measures of force. A ruling of the highest court forces the administration of Together for Change to reimburse the amounts that had been deducted from the teachers who had made a strike against the return to attendance, at the beginning of last year.
The sanction had fallen against members of the Association of Middle and Higher Education (Ademys), which in April 2021 questioned the decision of the ministry in charge of Soledad Acuña de return to classes in the midst of what was the first peak of infections and deaths for the pandemic.
In those days, Acuña and Horacio Rodríguez Larreta began their preaching that schools were not sources of massive contagion and urged teachers to return to the classroom. However, infections in education workers increasedthe unions made themselves heard and the government informed them of sanctions.
Ademys took the issue to court and now, a year later, the highest court upheld two rulings issued in the first instance and Chamber of Justice in labor matters.
What did the teachers report?
The union stated: “It is an incontrovertible, public and notorious fact, the situation of health, labor and economic crisis that has occurred since the declaration of a pandemic communicated by the World Health Organization, at the beginning of the year 2020, as so are the consequences that this circumstance has caused, with the undeniable impact that this has caused in the labor, economic and social spheres”.
Both the judge of first instance, Laura Castagnino, and the cameramen Roberto Pompa and Álvaro Balestrini, agreed to endorse the workers’ proposal.
Now the government of Rodríguez Larreta must proceed to “reimburse the funds deducted from teachers for ‘strike days’ during the month of April 2021″ and must also refrain “from making salary deductions for the same reasons, with respect to the salary for the month of May,” the Court determined.
The Court’s Arguments
The decision was final because the City Government, represented by lawyer Guillermo Baccarelli, delayed submitting documentation that the Court required to review the file and, when he did, the procedural deadlines had expired.
The Court’s ruling upheld the claim. and stressed that “the International Labor Organization (ILO), on March 23, 2020, has issued a document that reveals global concern and alludes to the need for governments to implement measures aimed at mitigating the harmful effects in the world of job”.
The Buenos Aires government had not only objected to the content of that precautionary measure but had also asked that it be declared null. As he does with the cases in which he is at a disadvantage, he tried to buy time and said that the case belonged to another jurisdiction. He argued that the file should have been processed before the local Tax and Administrative Litigation Court.
The ruling that has now become final by decision of the Court clarifies that it is only linked to the precautionary measure that requires the restitution of the discounted money as a provisional measure and “a definitive pronouncement on the claim that underlies and carries with it the assessment of danger does not matter. permanence of the current situation”
“The conflict occurred because we demanded sanitary conditions to return to a presence that was not cared for at all. We returned without vaccination, we returned with protocols that were not safe, with a head of the Buenos Aires government who maintained a denial policy. Teachers had the strength to face it and that is why this ruling is very valuable,” said Jorge Adarothe owner of Ademys, to Page 12. “Secondly, it also has an economic value, because we live on our salary and during those days of strikes we suffered discounts of 30, 35 thousand pesos in a month.”
The leader added that Ademys is going to meet this Wednesday with the union’s lawyers to determine how the way will be for the City to return the money deducted for the days of the strike. “We don’t have dates yet. We know that, like everything related to the Buenos Aires government, it will also be a fight.”