Companies will have to wait six months before being able to use the redundancy fund

It is part of the articles that make up the labor reform and which was promulgated this Friday through a decree published in the Official Gazette. Thus, the law approved a week ago in Congress began to take effect in all its chapters. Subtraction know the regulations that offices such as ARCA, the Ministry of Labor or the National Securities Commission (CNV) must apply.

This fine print is especially relevant for the Labor Assistance Fund (FAL). It is one of the central developments of the reform. It is a financial vehicle so that companies, on a mandatory basis, contribute to a fund that will later be used to pay compensation if they decided to lay off staff.

In practical terms, it is a fund that will be financed with a percentage of the contributions that companies already make to the pension system. Therefore, does not imply an increase in costs, but one resource reallocation which Anses receives today. These funds will be invested and managed by brokerage companies that each company must select.

The articles that establish the creation of the FAL also mention specific deadlines for the start of its operation. The formation of the scheme and the obligation of companies to have their accounts in brokerage companies has a start date on June 1. The Government reserved the power to extend that period by six months.

But it also establishes a first “funding” period of those accounts opened in the capital market. Article 65 of the law states that “in order to guarantee financial stability”, the FAL may not be used to finance compensation “until after having received contributions corresponding to at least six monthly periods“.

There is also an asterisk in that aspect: the Government will evaluate whether it needs “set a longer deadlinewhen due to the characteristics of the economic sector or the labor market, among other reasonable reasons, it is advisable.”

Another decisive aspect of the regulation has to do with which investments will be enabled and which will not. The Government only let it be known that the purpose of the FAL will not be to make risky investments, but rather that this money does not lose value, although they mentioned as a limit that a company You will not be able to buy own shares.

Nor can there be “direct or indirect” corporate link between the company that contributes and the brokerage company chosen to manage those funds.

If there are limits to what type of investments companies can choose with the money they contribute to the FAL will be determined by the CNVthe body that regulates the capital market and depends on the Ministry of Economy. Official sources assure that the sequence will be: first a regulatory decree, then resolutions from the Treasury Palace, the labor portfolio and only then the Securities Commission.

An experienced city operator believes that a certain possibility is that investment can be made in the bonds and letters issued by the ministry itself in its debt tenders. “In this way, funds that went to the national collection that served to pay pensions will go to finance the Treasury.”he stated.

Companies must pay commissions to the administrative entities; The opinion that the ruling party debated in the chamber stipulates a limit of 1%.

There are two items that will be left out of the FAL schemewhich also have a high relevance in the labor network: the employees of the construction and the private home employees.

In the first case, they have a current scheme with their own contributions to a compensation “backpack.” For domestic staff, employers in general are human persons, who are not included in the obligation to establish an account with the capital market.