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Argentina - Compensation & Benefit Legislation

CAPITAL

Buenos Aires

 

CLIMATE

Temperate for the most part. The climate is arid in the southeast and subantarctic in the southwest.

 

LANGUAGES

Spanish (official), English, Italian, German and French.

 

LEGAL SYSTEM

A combination of the US and the West European legal systems. Argentina has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction.

 

CURRENCY

Argentina Pesos (1 USD = 2.15000 ARS as of March 1, 2002)

 

ARGENTINA - COST-OF-LIVING

ERI's Relocation Assessor is a recommended source for cost-of-living data.

 

ARGENTINA - EMBASSY/CONSULATES

U.S. Embassy at Buenos Aires

Avenida Columbia 4300

C1425 GMN Buenos Aires

Argentina

APO AA 34034

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Telephone: [54] (11) 5777-4533

Fax: [54] (11) 5777-4270

http://usembassy.state.gov/posts/ar1/

 

Embassy of the Argentine Republic at Washington D.C.

1600 New Hampshire Avenue N.W.

Washington D.C. 20009

Telephone: (202) 238-6400

Fax: (202) 332-3171

http://www.embajadaargentina-usa.org/

 

ARGENTINA - HOLIDAYS

 

ARGENTINA - LEAVE

Annual Leave: Minimum 14 days paid vacation leave each year. Annual leave is based on years of service. After 20 years on the job, an employee receives 35 days annual leave each year.

 

Maternity Leave: 90 days – 100% of pay (paid for by social security).

 

ARGENTINA - MINIMUM AGE

The education law requires that children attend school until the age of 15, effectively prohibiting employment of children under 15; however, other laws are inconsistent and child labor is a problem.

 

The labor laws still allow children to work at the age of 14 and in rare cases the Ministry of Education may authorize a younger child to work as part of a family unit. Children between the ages of 15 and 16 may work in a limited number of job categories, but not more than 6 hours a day or 35 hours a week.

 

The penalty for employing underage workers ranges from $1,000 to $5,000 (1,000 to 5,000 pesos) for each child employed.

 

(Section 6.d. Acceptable Conditions of Work, Argentina – Report of Human Rights Practices, 2001, U.S. Department of State.)

 

ARGENTINA - MINIMUM REMUNERATION

The monthly national minimum wage is approximately $200 (200 pesos), which is not sufficient to provide a decent standard of living for a worker and family. It is determined by a tripartite committee and has not been changed for at least 6 years.

 

However, few workers in the formal sector make the minimum wage; according to a prominent labor expert, the estimated average income of a laborer is roughly $550 (550 pesos) per month. Those employed full time in the informal sector are estimated to make closer to $370 (370 pesos) a month.

 

(Section 6.e. Acceptable Conditions of Work, Argentina – Report of Human Rights Practices, 2001, U.S. Department of State.)

 

ARGENTINA - REMUNERATION

ERI's Geographic and Salary Assessors are recommended sources for international remuneration covering 189 countries.

 

ARGENTINA - REPORT OF HUMAN RIGHTS PRACTICES (2001, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE)

Section 6 Worker Rights

 

a. The Right of Association

The Constitution provides for the right to form "free and democratic labor unions, recognized by simple inscription in a special register," and unions exercise this right. With the exception of military personnel, all workers are free to form unions. An estimated 35 percent of the work force is organized. Trade unions are independent of the Government and political parties, although many union leaders traditionally have supported the Justicialist Party. Most unions are affiliated with one of the two factions of the General Confederation of Labor (CGT). A smaller federation, the Argentine Workers' Central, also is recognized legally.

 

The International Labor Organization's (ILO) Committee of Experts has criticized a law that allows only one union per industrial sector to negotiate salary, collect dues, and call a strike. The law makes it virtually impossible for new unions to challenge existing unions, thus giving the established unions a monopoly on these fundamental powers of representation. In late 2000, the Labor Minister formed a tripartite commission to analyze the ILO observations, but there have been no reported developments.

 

The Constitution provides for the right to strike, and this right is observed in practice. Four national general strikes took place during the year and numerous smaller scale strikes were held, including one by public school teachers in Buenos Aires Province, which closed schools for a month in August. The major strikes were generally protests against the economic model or specific government austerity measures aimed to balance the federal budget.

 

Groups of unemployed and underemployed workers, retirees, and unions around the country frequently demonstrated and used roadblocks as acts of protest. Hundreds of incidents took place during the year. Many of the roadblocks were carried out by groups of impoverished persons demanding federal and provincial unemployment payments or job subsidies. The roadblocks usually were organized by political or labor leaders. While most roadblocks were resolved by negotiated settlements, sometimes including promises of extended or expanded unemployment programs, a number ended in confrontations between the police and strikers. Two persons were killed in Salta Province in association with such a confrontation (see Sections 1.a., 1.c., and 2.b.). There was a peaceful general strike on December 13 (see Section 2.b.).

 

Unions are free to join international confederations without government restrictions; many unions also are active in international trade secretariats.

 

b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively

 

The Constitution provides unions with the right to negotiate collective bargaining agreements and to have recourse to conciliation and arbitration. The Ministry of Labor, Employment, and Human Resources Formation ratifies collective bargaining agreements, which cover roughly three-fourths of the work force. According to the ILO, the ratification process impedes free collective bargaining because the Ministry not only considers whether a collective labor agreement contains clauses violating public order standards, but also considers whether the agreement complies with productivity, investment, technology, and vocational training criteria. However, there were no known cases during the year when the Government refused to approve any collective agreements under the above criteria.

 

The Labor Reform Law, which went into effect in May 2000, allows collective bargaining on a regional, provincial, or company basis depending on what the local union and company decide.

 

The new law also established a mediation service, which is yet to be implemented. A conciliation service, which began operation in 1997, has helped reduce the number of labor disputes in courts by 60 percent. Foreign experts conducted a 1-week training in mediation for labor professionals, particularly government officials, in Cordoba Province in November.

 

The Labor Reform Law lengthened the probationary period for new workers to between 90 and 120 days for large companies and to between 6 months and 1 year for small businesses. The reform law also ended the practice known as "ultra-activity," which allowed existing labor contracts to be renewed if the parties did not come to terms on a new agreement.

 

The reform legislation, which some labor unions strongly opposed, led to an inconclusive investigation into alleged bribes to key Senators to vote in favor of the legislation. The Government has not yet fully adopted implementing regulations for the labor reform law, and there is no clear indication of when they are to be completed. Given the lack of full implementation and the severe economic recession, it is difficult to judge the impact of the labor reform law.

 

The law prohibits antiunion practices, and the Government generally enforces this prohibition in practice.

 

There are three functioning export processing zones with many others legally registered but not active. The primary commercial advantages of these zones are related to customs and duty exemptions. The same labor laws apply within these zones as in all other parts of the country.

 

c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor

 

The law prohibits forced or compulsory labor; however, some illegal workers, particularly Bolivians, are duped with fraudulent promises and end up in conditions of forced labor with poor pay and working conditions, and there were reports that women were trafficked to the country (see Section 6.f.). The law also prohibits forced and bonded labor by children, and there were no reports that such practices occurred during the year; however, children have been trafficked to the country in the past for prostitution and labor (see Section 6.f.).

 

d. Status of Child Labor Practices and Minimum Age for Employment

 

The education law requires that children attend school until the age of 15, effectively prohibiting employment of children under 15; however, other laws are inconsistent and child labor is a problem. The labor laws still allow children to work at the age of 14 and in rare cases the Ministry of Education may authorize a younger child to work as part of a family unit. Children between the ages of 15 and 16 may work in a limited number of job categories, but not more than 6 hours a day or 35 hours a week. The penalty for employing underage workers ranges from $1,000 to $5,000 (1,000 to 5,000 pesos) for each child employed.

 

According to the ILO/IPEC, 6.47 percent of children between the ages of 10 and 14 work. Local NGO's note that the figure is imprecise and could be as high as 10 percent. In 1999 in the greater Buenos Aires area, 12,500 children age 14 and below were in the work force. In a 1997 report, UNICEF stated that 252,000 children between the ages of 6 and 14 were employed--183,500 in urban areas and 68,500 in the country--principally harvesting tea and tobacco. An August 2000 UNICEF report on adolescents found that, for children between ages 13 and 17, 3 percent were in school and also economically active; 7 percent were not in school but were economically active; 84 percent were only in school; and 6 percent were neither in school nor working. A survey of street children conducted in April and May by the City of Buenos Aires found that nearly 80 percent of the children surveyed carried out some economic activity (see Section 5). Of the children surveyed, 42 percent engaged in begging, 20 percent in trash recycling; 14 percent in sales; 10 percent worked opening taxi doors; and 1.2 percent engaged in theft and prostitution. Three-quarters of those surveyed said that they were working to help their families.

 

In 2000 the President formally established a National Commission for the Eradication of Child Labor to work with the Government, organized labor, the business community, religious groups, UNICEF, and NGO's. During the year, the Commission was active. It signed several sectoral agreements to study and address child labor problems with labor and industry organizations, including those involved in clothing, footwear, agriculture, and construction. The Commission also designed a labeling program, held seminars and workshops, sponsored a conference on child labor in refuse recycling, and developed a model approach to eliminate children's participation in informal refuse recycling.

 

In September the Buenos Aires provincial government issued a decree that police detain children begging in public places. However, due to opposition to the measure from children's advocates and even sectors of the provincial government, the decree was suspended almost immediately, although it was not revoked.

 

The Government prohibits forced and bonded child labor, and there were no confirmed reports of its use during the year; however, in the past children have been trafficked to the country for labor and prostitution (see Sections 6.c. and 6.f.).

 

e. Acceptable Conditions of Work

 

The monthly national minimum wage is $200 (200 pesos), which is not sufficient to provide a decent standard of living for a worker and family. It is determined by a tripartite committee and has not been changed for at least 6 years. However, few workers in the formal sector make the minimum wage; according to a prominent labor expert, the estimated average income of a laborer is roughly $550 (550 pesos) per month. Those employed full time in the informal sector are estimated to make closer to $370 (370 pesos) a month.

 

Federal labor law sets standards in the areas of health, safety, and hours. The maximum workday is 8 hours, and the maximum workweek is 48 hours. Overtime payment is required for hours worked in excess of these limits. The law also sets minimums for periods of rest and paid vacation. However, laws governing acceptable conditions of work are not enforced universally, particularly for workers in the informal sector who constitute about 40 percent of the work force.

 

Employers are required by law to insure their employees against accidents at the workplace, and when traveling to and from work. In December 2000, a presidential decree increased the maximum cash payments and maximum total payments for workers' compensation in an effort to strengthen worker protections. Workers have the right to remove themselves from dangerous or unhealthful work situations, after having gone through a claim procedure, without jeopardy to continued employment. Nonetheless, workers who leave the workplace before it has been proven unsafe risk being fired; in such cases, the worker has the right to judicial appeal, but the process can be very lengthy.

 

f. Trafficking in Persons

 

Although there are no laws specifically addressing trafficking in persons, other laws are used to prosecute crimes associated with trafficking, such as Kidnaping, forced labor, use of false documents and prostitution. Women have been trafficked to the country, primarily for prostitution, and children have been trafficked to the country in the past for prostitution and labor. Women and girls from Paraguay and the neighboring province of Misiones have been trafficked to Buenos Aires under the guise of working as domestic employees then forced into debt peonage and prostitution. Traffickers reportedly hold travel documents and occasionally threaten violence. There are credible reports that women brought from the Dominican Republic to work in Argentina sometimes have been coerced into prostitution. At least one complaint was filed with police in Buenos Aires in late December against an alleged trafficker for reportedly threatening to have a trafficked Dominican woman killed.

 

Although the law does not specifically prohibit trafficking in persons, laws against child abuse provide penalties for trafficking children for purposes of prostitution, and other laws prohibit alien smuggling, indentured servitude, and similar abuses.

 

There are no government programs specifically to assist trafficking victims. The Government seldom detains immigrants on immigration-related charges.

 

ARGENTINA - SOCIAL SECURITY

Social Security Office of International Programs: In accordance with the Argentinean Labor Contract Law 20,744, an amount corresponding to the employee's pay, is deducted and placed in a pension fund, managed by the Pension Funds Collector Office. An employee may retire upon attaining an age predetermined by law and upon retirement becomes entitled to the retirement benefits which he or she has accrued.

 

http://www.ssa.gov/SSA_Home.html

 

ARGENTINA - STANDARD WORKWEEK

The maximum workday is 8 hours, and the maximum workweek is 48 hours. Overtime payment is required for hours worked in excess of these limits.

 

(Section 6.e. Acceptable Conditions of Work, Argentina – Report of Human Rights Practices, 2001, U.S. Department of State.)