The Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation decided on February 29, 2024 in the case “Oliva, Fabio Omar c/ COMA S.A. s/ dismissal” to annul the interest rate with capitalization that it had decided to apply to update labor lawsuits.
This system of capitalization used had demonstrated in the sentences up to that moment an inequity in economic matters, becoming one more incentive to increase labor litigation, being an element also very feared by the companies because a judicial process of minor amount ended up becoming a liability of great importance for the company.
Those of us who worked in the profession were constantly confronted with judgments that, although favorable to a defendant company, in which a large part of the claim was rejected, due to the application of interest, sidereal sums had to be paid in the end.
It was clear that the capitalization of interest was prohibited, but the National Chamber of Labor Appeals continued to uphold this position in the face of the incessant claims made by the defendant companies in each of the presentations.
It was evident that the issue would reach the highest court in our country and so it was that the court declared by means of a judgment the inapplicability of the capitalization of interest, this indexation that the law does not allow. Thus, it held that the periodic and successive capitalization determined by the Labor Court of Appeals is not supported by the provisions of the Civil and Commercial Code of the Nation, referring that article 770 of such code establishes that “interest is not owed on interest”, something so clear and simple but that the Court omitted to consider.
What is remarkable is the remarking made by the Court when it refers that in the case a 7745.30% interest rate was applied, something that is far from the recomposition of the worker’s capital on which the Court tried to base this new application of interest.
The Court’s decision did not determine which interest rate is applicable and ordered that a new sentence be issued with a rate that follows the guidelines of the decision, so it will not be known until a new sentence is issued which rate will be applied by the Court.
So far there is no determinable rate, but some chambers, until a new resolution is issued by the Labor Court of Appeals.
Some chambers, such as Chamber VIII of the National Labor Court of Appeals, have taken into consideration the Supreme Court’s decision and have ruled that the interest rate to be applied should respond to an updating scheme that accompanies the economic depreciation, so they began to use the CER interest rate plus an additional 3% interest with capitalization at the time of the notification of the transfer of the claim.
In this way, different criteria are beginning to be outlined that will undoubtedly culminate in a new uniform interest rate for the labor court, through the issuance of an act that respects the provisions of the Supreme Court’s ruling.
Source: El Cronista
