Non-salaried work, public policies and strategies to meet the needs of COVID-19 in Argentina

Abstract

This paper analyses the public policies aimed at non-salaried workers, implemented in Argentina to address the socioeconomic consequences of the pandemic, considering: a) the way in which they participated in the regulation of working conditions from establishing the essential or non-essential activities, and offering differential forms of support for different categories of workers and productive units; and b) the family and collective strategies deployed in the face of the limitations and access difficulties to them. We used a qualitative methodology based on semi-structured interviews with two groups of non-salaried workers: street vendors and delivery platform workers, with the analysis of regulations and statistical information. The article shows that the implemented policies during the pandemic replicated existing intervention schemes in which formal salaried work has a fundamental gravitation. From this, the essential and non-essential sectors of activity, the types of state intervention, the resources and the quality of benefits were distinguished according to the formal-informal / salaried-non-salaried employment status. This scheme (re)produced and deepened inequalities in protection and access to rights and tended to place the non-salaried in the assistance space. While seeking to address social needs, the policies revealed the fractures in the world of work that acquired a new entity during the pandemic.