List of Abbreviations 17
Introduction 19
Ⅰ.GENERAL BACKGROUND 19
1.Geography 19
2.Political System 20
A.Legislative Power 21
B.Executive Power 22
C.Ministers of the Executive Power 23
D.Judicial Power 23
E.Provincial Government 24
3.Population and Labour Statistics 25
4.Social and Cultural Values 32
Ⅱ.DEFINITIONS AND NOTIONS 33
1.Labour Law.Concept and Purposes 33
2.Parts and Contents of the Labour Law.The Nature of its Norms 33
3.Labour Law and Social Security Law 34
Ⅲ.HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 36
1.Labour Regime in the Spanish Colonial Legislation 37
2.Labour Law in the Argentine Constitutionalism 38
Ⅳ.ADMINISTRATIVE AUTHORITY OF LABOUR 41
1.Individual Labour Relations 41
A.Authorisation of Labour Documentation 41
B.Granting of Exceptions to the General Labour Rules 42
C.Attributions about Hygiene and Safety at Work 42
D.Intervention in Individual Labour Conflicts 43
E.Service of Employment and Supervision of the Enterprises of Eventual Services 43
2.Inspection of Labour 43
A.General Labour Inspection 43
B.Attributions of the Inspectors 44
C.Means of Action of the Inspectors 45
D.Judging the Infractions 47
3.Collective Labour Relations 49
Ⅴ.SOURCES OF LABOUR LAW 51
1.Individualisation of the Sources 51
A.The Legal Enunciation 51
B.The National Constitution 51
1.The 'New Article' and the Legal System of Guarantees 51
2.Centralisation of Labour Problems 52
3.The National Constitution and Individual Labour Law 53
4.The National Constitution and Collective Labour Law 53
C.National Laws 53
D.Provincial Laws 54
E.International Treaties 54
F.Reglementary Decrees 55
G.Administrative Resolutions 55
H.Collective Conventions 56
I.Arbitral Awards 57
J.Party Will 57
K.Habit and Custom 57
L.Jurisprudence 57
M.Doctrine 58
N.General Principles 58
2.Hierarchy of the Sources 59
Ⅵ.INTERNATIONAL PRIVATE LABOUR LAW 60
Ⅶ.SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 61
Part Ⅰ:Individual Employment Relations 63
CHAPTER Ⅰ.DEFINITIONS AND CONCEPTS 63
1.Labour Contract and Labour Relationship 63
2.Subjects of the Labour Relationship 64
A.Labourer and Employer 64
B.Different Categories of Workers 64
1.Workers Subject to the General Regime of Labour Contract 64
2.Workers who have Special Regulations 64
a.Workmen in private address 65
b.Commercial and/or industrial travellers 66
c.Building workers 66
C.Intermediacy in Labour Contracting and Fraud 67
1.Employment Agencies and Temporary Work 68
2.Contractors, Economic Groups.Employee Assistants 68
3.Fraudulent Use of Non-Labour Contracts 69
3.Capacity of the Subjects in the Labour Contract 69
4.The Object of the Labour Contract 70
5.Form and Proof of the Labour Contract 70
A.Carrying out of Labour Contract 70
B.Formal Acts in the Life of the Labour Contract 71
C.The Proof of the Labour Contract 71
1.The Mediums of Proof 71
2.Probatory Insufficiency Regarding Remuneration 71
D.Books, Registers and Labour Control Lists 72
1.Special Books 72
2.Probatory Effects of the Books, Registries and Control Lists 73
3.Work Notebooks, Licences or Identity Cards 74
E.Juridical Effects of the Silence of Labour Contract Subjects 74
F.The Worker's Signature 75
1.Signature and Finger Print 75
2.Blank Signature 76
3.The Signature in Printed Forms 76
6.Modalities of Labour Contracts 76
A.The Labour Contract for an Indefinite Period 76
B.Labour Contract for a Fixed Period 77
C.Eventual Labour Contract 78
D.Seasonal Contract 79
E.Trial Contract or Period of Trial 79
F.Team Labour Contract 80
CHAPTER Ⅱ.RIGHTS AND DUTIES OF THE PARTIES 81
1.Duties of Behaviour Common to the Parties 81
2.Powers and Faculties of the Employer 81
A.Faculty of Direction and Organisation 82
B.Ius Variandi 82
C.Disciplinary Faculty 83
1.Legal Regime 83
2.Requisites of Sanction 83
3.Limits of the Disciplinary Faculty 84
a.General prohibitions 84
b.Regime of disciplinary suspension 84
D.Faculty of Control 84
3.Employer's Duties 85
A.Equal Treatment 85
B.Payment of Remuneration 85
C.Duty of Protection 85
1.Duty of Safety 86
2.Reimbursement of Expenses and Reparation of Damages 86
3.Supposition of the Worker's Living Quarters in the Employer's Establishment 86
D.Duty of Occupation 87
E.Duty of Diligence and Initiative 87
F.Responsibility for Labour Misfortunes 88
1.Regime of Law 9688 88
a.Reparatory system 88
b.Protected contingencies 89
(1) Temporary incapacity 89
(2) Worker's death 89
(3) Permanent incapacity 90
c.Exemption from responsibility 90
d.Private insurance 90
2.Regime of Civil Responsibility 91
4.Worker's Duties 91
A.Obedience 91
B.Diligence and Collaboration 91
C.Duty of Fidelity 92
D.Responsibility for Damages 92
CHAPTER Ⅲ.WORKING TIME AND RESTS 93
1.Working Time 93
A.Sources of Regulation on Working Time 93
1.Legislative Evolution.Exercise of the Normative Faculty by the Nation and the Provinces 93
2.Legislation in Force.Autonomous and Heteronomous Regulations 93
B.Concept and Types of Working Time 96
1.Normal or Maximum Ordinary Working Time(or Diurnal and Healthy Working Time) 96
2.Nocturnal Working Time 96
3.Unhealthy Working Time 97
4.Mixed Working Time 97
C.Exceptions to the Limits of Working Time 97
1.Permanent Exceptions to the Legal Regime 98
a.Exclusions of the regime of maximum working time 98
(1) General exclusion 98
(2) Directing and vigilance employment 98
(3) Workers displaced from the enterprise's headquarters 98
b.Labour modalities with different working time 98
(1) Intermittent work 98
(2) Team work 99
(3) Preparatory or complementary jobs 99
2.Temporary Exceptions 99
a.Temporary administrative authorisation to exceed the legal maximum 99
b.Aid for extraordinary help 99
3.Activities and Workers with Special Working Time 100
a.Minors' working time 100
b.Women's working time 100
c.Agrarian work 100
d.Domestic work 101
D.Work Exceeding the Legal Working Time (Supplementary or Extraordinary Hours) 101
1.Concept and Terminology 101
2.Obligatory Character 101
3.Limits 101
4.Remuneration 102
5.Rests 102
2.Rests 102
A.Daily Rest 102
B.Weekly Rest 102
1.Legal Regime, Concept 102
2.Remuneration 103
3.Exceptions to the Legal Prohibition 103
4.Consequence of the Rendering of Services during the Period of Weekly Rest 104
C.Holidays and Non-working Days 104
1.Holidays 104
2.Non-working Days 105
D.Vacations 105
1.Concept and Normative Frame 105
2.Requisites 106
3.Period and Form of Granting 106
4.Terms 107
5.Remuneration 107
6.Omission of Granting.Compensation in Cash 107
E.Special Leave 108
CHAPTER Ⅳ.REMUNERATION 109
1.General Aspects 109
A.Concept 109
B.The Worker's Remuneration and the National Constitution 109
2.Salary, Fixing and Payment 109
A.Minimum Wages 109
1.Basic Professional Salary 109
2.Minimum, Vital and Mobile Salary 110
B.Fixing by the Parties in the Labour Contract, Judges'Intervention 111
C.Different Methods to Determine Remuneration 111
1.Remuneration on the Basis of Time and Performance 111
2.Viaticum 112
D.Forms of Payment of Remuneration 112
3.Protection of the Worker's Salary 113
A.Protection with regard to the Employer 113
1.Form, Place and Opportunity of Payment; Mora and Prescription 113
2.Prohibition of Deductions, Retentions and Compensations 114
3.Receipts and other Payment Vouchers 115
B.Protection toward the Worker's Creditors 116
C.Protection toward other Employer's Creditors 116
CHAPTER Ⅴ.SUSPENSION OF THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE RIGHTS AND DUTIES OF PARTIES AND OTHER IRREGULARITIES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE LABOUR RELATION 118
1.Suspensions due to the Employer's Initiative 118
A.Suspensions due to Disciplinary or Economical Causes 118
1.Configuration of the 'Economic Cause' 118
2.Disciplinary Cause 119
3.Terms 119
B.Precautionary and Preventive Suspension 120
2.Suspensions due to the Workers' Initiative 121
A.Situation of Nursing Mothers 121
B.Exercise of Elective or Trade Union Positions 121
3.Material of Legal Impossibility 122
A.Maternity 122
B.Military Service and Special Leave 122
C.Blameless Incapacity of the Worker 123
4.Affectation of the Labour Relation as a Consequence of the Blameless Incapacity of the Labourer 123
A.Temporary Incapacity 123
B.Permanent Incapacity 124
CHAPTER Ⅵ.JOB SECURITY 125
1.Job Stability in Argentine Law 125
2.The Termination of the Labour Contract 125
A.Prior Notice 125
B.Dismissal without Just Cause 127
C.The Worker's Resignation from the Job 128
D.Termination of the Labour Contract by Joint Agreement of the Parties 129
E.Justified Termination of the Labour Contract 129
1.Just Cause 129
2.The Effects of the Termination of the Labour Contract with Just Cause 130
3.The Communications of Direct or Indirect Dismissal 131
4.The Criterion of Contemporaneity 131
F.Dismissal due to Economic Causes (Lack of Work or Reduction in Work or Force Majeure) 132
G.Expiry of the Term or Satisfaction of the Contract's Objective 132
H.Death of the Subjects of the Labour Contract 133
1.Worker's Decease 133
2.Employer's Death 133
I.Employer's Bankruptcy 134
J.Worker's Incapacity or Disablement 134
1.Supervening Mental or Physical Incapacity 134
2.Juridical Disablement 135
K.Extinction of the labour Contract of the Worker who is in Condition to Retire and of the Retired Worker 135
1.The Worker who is in a Condition to Retire 135
2.The Retired Worker who Returns to Activity 136
L.Other Special Cases of Labour Contract Termination 136
3.Worker's Seniority 137
CHAPTER Ⅶ.PROTECTION AGAINST DISCRIMINATION IN EMPLOYMENT.PROTECTION OF CERTAIN CATEGORIES OF WORKERS 138
1.Protection Against Discrimination in Employment 138
2.Protection of Certain Categories of Workers 139
A.Minors' Work 139
B.Women's Work 140
1.Protection of Women due to their Sex 140
2.Marriage of WomenWorkers 141
3.Maternity Protection 141
a.Reinforcement of stability 141
b.Prohibition of working 142
c.Daily rests during the nursing period 142
d.After delivery 142
C.Incapacitated Workers 142
CHAPTER Ⅷ.DUTY OF NON-COMPETITION 144
CHAPTER Ⅸ.INVENTIONS BY EMPLOYERS 145
CHAPTER Ⅹ.SETTLEMENT OF INDIVIDUAL DISPUTES 146
1.Judicial Organisation 146
A.Introduction 146
B.Labour Justice in the Federal Capital 147
1.Antecedents 147
2.Organisation 148
3.Competence 150
4.Procedure 151
a.First instance 152
b.Appeals 153
1.Revocatory 153
2.Explanatory 153
3.Appeal 153
4.For annulment 154
5.Complaint 154
6.Inapplicability of law 154
7.Extraordinary appeal before the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation 154
C.Labour Justice in the Province of Buenos Aires 154
1.Antecedents 154
2.Organisation and Competence 155
3.Procedure 155
a.Ordinary 155
b.Appeals 156
1.Inconstitutionality 157
2.Inapplicability of the law or the legal doctrine 157
3.Extraordinary annulment 157
Part Ⅱ.Collective Labour Relations 158
CHAPTER Ⅰ.TRADE UNION FREEDOM 158
1.Introduction 158
2.Individual Aspects of Trade Union Freedom 159
A.Legal Protection 159
B.Trade-Union Clauses 160
3.Collective Trade Union Freedom 161
A.Automony before the State 161
B.Autonomy before Employers 163
C.Autonomy before Political Parties 164
D.Autonomy before other Trade Unions 165
CHAPTER Ⅱ.TRADE UNIONS 167
1.Introduction 167
2.Brief Historical Review of Trade Unionism and the Evolution of Trade Union Legislation in Argentina 168
A.Evolution of the Trade Union Movement 168
1.First Stage: Origins and Formation of the Trade Union Movement 168
2.Second Stage: from the Revolution of 1943 to the Revo-lution of 1955; the First Organic Trade Union Law 169
3.Third Stage: the Revolution of 1955 and a Frustrated Coup Attempt 170
4.Fourth Stage: Recovery and Affirmation of the Model 170
5.Fifth Stage: from 1973 to 1976; Ratification and Consolidation of the System 171
6.Sixth Stage: Military Dictatorship and its Trade Union Model 170
7.Seventh Stage: from 1983 on 172
B.Normative Evolution 173
1.Decree 2669/43 173
2.Decree-Law 23.352/45 173
3.The National Constitution of 1949 174
4.Decree-Law 9270/56 174
5.Law 14.455 (1958) 175
6.Law 20.615 (1973) 176
7.From Law 20.615 to Law 22.105 177
8.Law 22.105 (1979) 178
9.Present Situation.The New Law of Trade Unions No 23.551 (1988) 179
3.Trade Union Concept and Trade Union Structure 180
A.Legal Terminology 180
B.Concept 181
C.Trade Union Structure 182
4.Formation and Types of Trade Unions.The Question of Union Status 183
A.Associations Registered Simply 183
1.Trade Union Registration 183
2.Registered Association Rights 184
3.Obligations of the Simply Registered Trade Unions 185
B.Trade Unions with Union Status 185
1.Union Status and Legal Personality 185
2.Granting and Recourse 186
3.Juridical Capacity and Exclusive Rights of Trade Unions with Union Status 187
5.Internal Organisation and Trade Union Representation 188
A.Trade Union By-laws 188
B.Trade Union Organs 189
C.Trade Union Leave 190
6.Trade Union Representation in the Enterprise 190
7.Trade Union Immunity 192
A.Law 20.615 193
B.Law 22.105 194
C.Law 23.551 195
8.Unfair Practices 196
A.Antecedents 196
B.Present Regime 197
CHAPTER Ⅲ.INSTITUTIONALISED RELATIONS BETWEEN EMPLOYERS AND EMPLOYEES 199
1.Institutionalised Relations at the Level of the Enterprise or Working Place 199
2.Industrial or Interprofessional Relations 199
A.Paritary Commissions of the Interpretation of Collective Conventions 199
B.National Council of MVMS 200
C.National Commission of Agrarian Work 200
CHAPTER Ⅳ.COLLECTIVE BARGAINING 202
1.Brief Report of Antecedents 202
2.The National Constitution and Collective Bargaining 203
3.Legal Regime of Collective Bargaining and Convention 203
A.Norms in Force 203
B.Excluded Sectors 204
C.The Parties to the Collective Convention 204
D.Types of Collective Conventions 204
1.Collective Conventions Homologated according to Law 14.250 (1988) 204
2.Enterprise Internal Agreement and other Irregularities or the 'Common Rights Law' 205
E.Present Structure of Collective Bargaining 205
F.Collective Convention Procedure 206
G.Homologation of the Collective Convention 207
H.Publication and Registration of the Collective Convention 208
I.Force of the Collective Convention 208
J.Content of the Collective Convention 209
K.Application and Interpretation of the Collective Convention 210
1.Imperative Character and Application of its Norms 210
2.Paritary Commissions 211
L.Territorial Ambit of the Collective Convention 211
4.Relations Between the Collective Convention and other Labour Rights Sources 212
A.The Collective Convention and the Law 212
B.The Collective Convention, the Law and the Individual Contract 214
C.The Collective Labour Convention, the Enterprise's Internal Agreement of the Common Rights Law and the Individual Contract 214
1.The Collective Convention and the Enterprise's Internal Agreement 214
2.The Internal Agreement and the Individual Contract 216
D.Concurrence of Homologated Collective Conventions 216
1.Concurrence of Norms or Representation 216
2.Industrial Collective Convention and Enterprise Convention 216
3.Other Situations of Convention Concurrence 217
4.Derogation of One Collective Convention by Another 218
CHAPTER Ⅴ.STRIKES AND LOCK-OUTS.LEGAL FORM OF INDUSTRIAL ACTION 219
1.Collective Conflicts 219
A.Individual and Collective Conflicts 219
B.Conflict of Rights or of Interest 219
2.First Appearances of Strike in the Argentine Republic 220
3.Juridical Regulation of Strike 221
A.Introductory Advice 221
B.Strike in the National Constitution 221
C.Exercise of the Right to Strike 222
D.Purposes of Strike 222
1.Professional Purposes 222
2.Political Purposes 222
3.Solidarity Strikes 223
4.Reasonableness, Justice and Moderation of Purposes 223
5.Measures of Force Exercised to Modify a Collective Convention in Force.The Duty of Peace. 223
E.Modalities in the Exercise of Strike and other Measures of Direct Action 224
F.Qualification of the Legality or Illegality of Strike 225
G.Effects of Strike in the Individual Labour Contract 226
1.The Labour Contract is Suspended 226
2.Payment of Remuneration 226
3.Strike is not Equal to Time of Service 227
4.Strike and the Termination of the Labour Contract 227
H.Strike and the Public Services 228
I.Penal Aspects of Strike and other Measures of Direct Action 229
4.Lock-out 230
CHAPTER Ⅵ: THE SETTLEMENT OF INDUSTRIAL CONFLICTS 231
1.Composition of Collective Labour Conflicts 231
A.Introduction 231
B.Obligatory Conciliation and Optional Arbitration (Law 14.786) 231
C.Obligatory Arbitration (Law 16.936) 233
Index 235