04 Ene 24 Promotion of Registered Employment: the modifications envisioned in the Draft Law

Agustín Cerolini, Matías Ferrari, Natalia Artmann y Roman Katz Catz

On December 27, 2023 the Bill for Bases and Starting Points for the Freedom of Argentines (the “Bill”) was introduced to the Argentine National Congress by the Executive Power (the “PEN” for its acronym in Spanish). Among the regulations presented, it proposes significant modifications to the labor law regulations.

First, the Bill allows employers to regularize existing private sector employment relationships existing prior to the date of enactment of the Bill. This regularization may include unregistered or poorly registered labor relationships.

The PEN will regulate the effects of the regularization that may include:

a) the extinction of the criminal proceedings, condonation of infractions, fines and sanctions and offences relating to social security resources, whether final or not, provided they are unpaid or unfulfilled at the date of entry into force of the Bill;

b) removal from the Register of Employers with Labor Sanctions in respect of infringements committed or found to have been committed up to the entry into force of the Bill, provided that all the workers are regularized and the corresponding fine is paid; and

c) forgiveness of the debt for capital and interest when arising from the lack of payment of dues and contributions for certain Social Security Subsystem.

The forgiveness percentages to be applied, shall in no case be less than 70% of the amounts owed. Likewise, incentives for the payment of what is owed in cash as well as special benefits for SMEs may be established.

On the other hand, workers included in the regularization described above will have the right to compute up to 60 months of service or the lesser number of months for which they are regularized.

Regularizations must be carried out within 90 days from the date of entry into force of the approval of the regulation.

For the purposes of the Bill, debts that are disputed in administrative, contentious-administrative or judicial proceedings may be included, provided that the employer accepts or waives, in whole or in part, and waives all actions and rights, assuming the payment of legal costs and expenses.