They warn about the “judicial cost”: litigation increased 6.8% in 2024 compared to 2023

Last year it was scenario of very high litigation in Argentine companies and reached a total of 125,842 new labor trials, 6.8% more than in 2023only for Occupational Risks. In December alone, 8,910 lawsuits were filed in the country.

From the Union of Occupational Risk Insurers (UART)warn that local accident rates are similar to those in Chile and Spain, but judicial rates are up to 20 times higher, thus displacing any productive and competitive effort.

And they add that “The figure gives a clear idea of ​​the size of the problem and the challenge to be solved”which not only has a relentless impact on the sector, but “these levels of litigation harm the entire productive structure: employers, affecting their investment and employment decisions.”

Thus, they indicate that this scenario lowers the chances for workers “of obtaining employment and quality employment and for ART, undermining the solvency of the system.”

In 2023, The lawsuits filed for this cause totaled 117,348. And although UART and many other business and professional institutions dedicated to the issue of employment were alerted about this distortion, 2024 added 6.8%, which added almost 8,500 more demands.

Litigation ranking by province

In order of participation, The Province of Buenos Aires is the most litigious, with an annual total of 50,584 trials (in December, it added 3,584 new demands). Its growth compared to the previous year was 4.5%. CABA follows, with 22,946 litigation cases during the year. And third place is occupied by Santa Fe, with 16,439 (1,137 in December alone) and an explosive annual increase of 21.5%. In fourth place is Córdoba with 10,424 annually (650 were added in the last month) and a year-on-year increase of 4.2%. Next on the podium of the big five is Mendoza, with 9,857 total (661 in December), and an increase of 18%.

A debt of Justice

According to UART’s analysis, these numbers, which are not justified by having our own, agile and quick-solving administrative system to resolve disputes, in accordance with the law that regulates the activity, without any charge to the worker, It is largely explained by the delay of the Justice of each province adhered to Law 27,348 and of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (CSJN) in CABA, in creating the Forensic Medical Corps in them..

Furthermore, it adds the aggravating factor of the interest rates applied in the updating of labor creditswell above the return on investments and failure to comply with the expiration period stipulated in the law to file a lawsuit, after having received the opinion of the System’s Medical Commissions.

“Each province has its own deadline approved in its respective accession, while National Law 27,348 determined 15 business days, a period that governs CABA. These eight years of delay in adapting to what is required by Law, and completing the reform, have generated a boomerang effect returning, in quantity of demands, almost to the starting point”, says UART.

In this context, from the entity, It is urgent to order the collapse of judicial expertise in the workplace, constituting, as clearly provided by the Law:

• Bodies of professionals specialized in occupational medicine.

• That they charge fees per medical act and not percentages of sentences.

• That they properly apply the official table for measuring disabilities remaining from a work accident.

“If our country wants to reconstitute its economy and compete globally with all its enormous capacity and potential, it should correct this ‘judicial cost’ as soon as possible. Argentina’, which became a structural cost, already denounced by all actors in our economy,” warns the entity.