Argentina (was "currency board")

[Enrique Diaz-Alvarez]

Juliana Shearer wrote:
> 
> Carrol Cox wrote, first quoting my friend Frank:
> 
> > >  The country has strict labor laws that chokes it by not giving
> > > companies a freer hand with its employees. You have "till death do you
> > > part" employment over here because it is much cheaper to keep them than
> > > to fire them.
> >
> > Query: (1) Is this supposed to be bad? I wish we had similar laws here.
> >
> > Query: (2) Is this just capitalist whining rather than the actual situation?
> >
> > Carrol
> 
> As to (1), I would love to say that all people should be able to always work for
> whichever place they want to work for, but not matter how idealistic I try to
> be, I always run into people I'd love to fire because I think that they are
> incompetent. Where can the line be drawn here? I run a small business, and when
> you get somebody bad in, it can break you. And we are not looking to make
> money--just break even.
> 

In Spain, legal restrictions on firing employees usually consist on
severance pay which is proportional to the number of years worked for
the firm. They make a distinction between firing for incompetence or
negligence, and economic lay-offs. The first type is usually much
cheaper, as long as the employer has some proof of said
incompetence/negligence. The second one is much more expensive, unless
the firm proves that its survival depends on the lay-offs.

In essence, getting rid of a bad employee after two months is very
cheap. Canning a 57 year-old father of four after 36 years of loyal
service can be very expensive indeed.

-- 
Enrique Diaz-Alvarez            Office # (607) 255 5034	
Electrical Engineering          Home #   (607) 272 4808
112 Phillips Hall               Fax #    (607) 255 4565
Cornell University              mailto:enrique at ee.cornell.edu
Ithaca, NY 14853                http://peta.ee.cornell.edu/~enrique