How much must keep running during a strike

The law draws up two lists of activities and sets a service floor for each for when industrial action is taken. For essential services, "under no circumstances may coverage below seventy-five per cent (75%) of the normal provision of the service in question be negotiated or imposed on the parties"; for activities of transcendental importance, "under no circumstances may coverage below fifty per cent (50%) be negotiated or imposed on the parties". Security forces may not fall below 100%. Essential services list (75%), eight subsections: childcare and education up to secondary level plus special education · health and hospital services, including the transport and distribution of medicines and hospital supplies and pharmacy services · "the production, transport, distribution and marketing of drinking water, gas, oil and other fuels and electricity" · telecommunications, including internet and satellite communications · waste collection · commercial aviation and air and port traffic control, including beaconing, dredging, mooring, stevedoring, unloading and vessel towing · cash transport · private security and guarding. Transcendental importance list (50%), nine subsections: sea and river transport of people and cargo, related services and "offshore operations" · customs and immigration services and others linked to foreign trade · production of medicines and hospital supplies · land and underground transport · radio and television · "continuous industrial activities, including steelmaking and aluminium production, the chemical industry and the cement industry" · the food industry across its whole value chain · banking, finance, hotels, restaurants and e-commerce · and "the production of goods and/or services of any activity committed to export obligations". A Guarantees Commission of five members, independent and autonomous, may propose adding an activity that is not on the lists. The procedure (paragraphs 24.1 to 24.6): once the mandatory conciliation of Ley 14.786 is exhausted and its fifteen days have run, whoever intends to take action must give five days' notice to the other party and to the authority; the following day the parties agree the minimum services before the authority, naming the staff involved, hours, duties and equipment; if they fail to do so or what they agree is insufficient, the authority sets them; and the public must be told through mass media 48 hours in advance. A national strike called by a union confederation is subject to the same rules. verif · Mar 6, 2026 ↗

In force with the law, from 6 March 2026. The percentages and the two lists are self-executing. What does depend on a later rule is the Guarantees Commission: the law says it is made up of five members "as the regulation shall establish", so the route for adding an activity that is on neither list today is not open until that commission exists. verif · Mar 6, 2026 ↗

To anyone who depends on an operation not stopping: whoever runs it, whoever supplies it and whoever buys from it. In energy Argentina that is direct — the production, transport and distribution of gas, oil and electricity are named in the essential services list, the one with the higher floor. And for exporting mining, and for any industry with signed export commitments, the final subsection of the second list covers "the production of goods and/or services of any activity committed to export obligations". ⚠️ The fine boundary, worth stating because it is where the cases will be fought: the lists name activities, not companies. A service company working for a field does not itself produce or transport oil; whether its task falls within "the production" of an essential service is exactly what the text does not settle. On the other side, the worker and the union: the right to strike still stands, but in these activities it has a floor, five days' notice, a named list of who covers the minimum and public notice 48 hours ahead. verif · Mar 6, 2026 ↗