Labour relations in associative and self-managed work organisations: reflections from the case of argentina

Abstract

The diversification of labor and organizational practices and strategies aroused in Argentina in the last two decades has highlighted the difficulty of grasping their complexity with the classic categories of observation and analysis of the sociology of work. This difficulty has a correlation in the field of public policies, which entails various obstacles when regulating and guaranteeing rights and protections for non-salaried workers, as well as their working conditions and collective bargaining institutions.

In view of this, this article aims to analyze the labor relations´ characteristics in organizations of associated and self-managed workers (non-salaried) based on the experience of the Argentine case in the period 2003-2018. The proposed approach focuses on the following aspects of labor relations: social security and access to protections, forms of management and organization of work and modalities of representation and collective bargaining.

It is proposed that addressing labor relations in this sector requires taking into account two imbricated dimensions. The first – a normative dimension – refers to the analysis of the formal rules and regulations that define the actions of these organizations. The second – a socio-cultural dimension – refers to the organizational modalities in political, social and productive terms.

The reflections presented here are based on results obtained from observations and analyzes made from research, linkage and transfer work carried out with associative organizations. Likewise, we have resorted to the technique of documentary analysis for the bibliographic review of research undertaken in the thematic field of our interest.