The social regulation of work cannot be understood apart from the economy and the social and political conditions of the historical moment in which it is produced. O contemporâneo capitalism, in its globalized and hegemonized feição with the interests of finances, has an impact on this regulation and on the public institutions responsible for its effectiveness (BIAVASCHI, 2017). In a context of crisis such as capitalism experienced since the 1970s, the movement in search of deregulation of the labor market has been incessant. The objectives, not always declared, are only to reduce labor costs and weaken the organization of workers (BIAVASCHI, 2017). In this process, the policies of flexibilization of labor protection standards appear as a global trend, deepening the precarious forms. The various reforms in labor legislation in Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, Colombia, Chile, Mexico and Uruguay are expressive of their complexity. Given the reality, it is relevant to the construction of a discussion forum with the intention of investigating both the meaning of these reforms and the strategies that resist them built for, in a comparative dialogue, we will be provided to the debate elements that allow us to better understand the factors that affect their own definition and their consequences of these reforms, such as, given them, the role of public institutions in the sense of offering (or no) obstacles to their deepening will be investigated.

Numerous works support that the labor reforms carried out in Latin America in the decades of 1980 and 1990 did not produce the announced results. The contractual and organizational flexibility, the reduction of salaries, the privatization of part of the social security system and the reduction of social and labor policies do not produce better hours in our employment levels and promote the precariousness of work and the increase in inequality. (BOHOSLAVSKY, 2017; FRAILE. 2009; VEGA RUIZ, 2015). In a recent study (ADAMS et al, 2019) states that the increase in workers' protection is correlated with the increase in employment and a decrease in inequality over time. 

The GT is the result of intellectual approximations on the topic with Argentine researchers from UBA, UNAJ, UNNE, FLACSO, and UNLP, Brazilian researchers from UNICAMP, UFF and UFBA. As well as Uruguayan researchers based at UdelaR. In addition to partnerships with Chilean, Colombian, Costa Rican and Mexican professors, who with their specificities will decide to meet in a space of dialogue to face the issue of labor reform in Latin America.

The main question that researchers add to the formation of the GT Labor Reform in Latin America is the characteristics of the government policies of two different countries in Latin America, based on governments with different policy orientations (Bernazza, 2016; Crespo and Ghibaudi, 2017; Sader (coord.), Serrano Mancilla, García Linera and others, 2017, etc.)

We will take Brazil and Argentina as an example, these two countries present similar aspects regarding the reforms implemented since the 1990s. There are only countries with a history of development of similar capitalism, despite their particularities, differences in dimensional, demographic and economic terms. (BASUALDO, 2006).

In periods subsequent to the 1990s, there were important modifications in both countries. The Kirchner administration, which began in 2003 under the presidency of Néstor Kirchner and continued from 2011 under Cristina Kirchner, adopted a series of positive measures not linked to public social policies (BASUALDO, 2012). In 2015, with the possession of President Mauricio Macri, evidence has been made of alterations in the economic scenario that impacts the fabric of social protection at work. Coincidentally, in Brazil, after a period marked by a positive improvement in the rates of employment and incorporation of the mass of workers into the fabric of social protection and expansion of the salary base, as shown in the data from the period 2006-2014, times of decline in direitos have also been experienced. The economy enters a crisis that deepens after the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff, in a scenario of implementation of structural reforms approved in fiscal austerity policies, with negative impacts that are located, above all, at the base of the social pyramid. (SANTOS; BIAVASCHI, 2014)

No Brazil, despite having had certain flexibilizing initiatives in the field of social protection, especially in the 1990s and with certain continuity in the years 2000 (KREIN and BIAVASCHI, 2015), the normative framework systematically constructed in the period of the Vargas Era and constitutionalized in 1988 (BIAVASCHI, 2007) was maintained in its essence. However, with the labor reform approved and effective as of November 2017, this system was brutally altered.

Part of the assumption is that the actions involved in work in different Latin American countries are related not only to labor policy in a strict sense, but also to a more general economic orientation adopted for the continent. A different situation, for example, was that which, for a significant period, Mexico experienced[1], tied to the Free Trade Agreement with the United States and Canada (NAFTA). In this period, that country that, maintaining the austerity policies implemented in 1990, presented less significant growth rates and less positive impacts on the labor market and, introducing a labor reform (2013), profoundly and negatively impacted the working conditions of the population. Os rumos novo governo que, inclusivo, propôs e viu aprovada (May 2019) uma nova legislação de proteção ao trabalho alicerçada no princípio da vedação de retrocessos e no respeito à tela public de proteção social, são recentes e Precisem ser melhor avaliados e estudados.  

The central concern of this work group will be to analyze the social consequences of the deterioration of working conditions due to the loss of social rights and the fragility of public work institutions (Belluzzo, 2013), seeking to draw comparisons between the different realities in Latin America, especially: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Colombia and Mexico.

[1] With President Obrador's possession, Mexico resumes a path in search of autonomy and greater equity.