Modernization of Employee Registration Systems

The new wording of article 52 of the Argentine Labor Law (LCT) provides that employers must register employees before the Argentine Tax Authority (ARCA). The novelty lies in that such registration will be sufficient to comply with the applicable regulations, which eliminates the requirement to keep a special employment book registered and certified by the enforcement authority. Notwithstanding this, the article provides that employers must retain pre-existing books for 10 years. However, the books may be digitized and will retain the same legal validity as the original paper records.

In the same vein, the reform introduced relevant amendments to articles 53 and 55 of the LCT. Regarding article 53 (on omissions in registration formalities), the rule preserves the courts’ authority to assess formal irregularities in registration based on the circumstances of each case. However, such irregularities no longer refer to formal or material defects in labor books (such as erasures, alterations, blank spaces, etc.), but rather to the proper registration of employees as set forth in the new wording of article 52. Accordingly, the provision now addresses only formal omissions within the currently applicable registration system.

On the other hand, article 55 of the LCT eliminates any reference to the presumption in favor of the employee arising from the employer’s failure to produce labor records upon judicial or administrative request. Instead, the presumption in favor of the employee or their successors will be directly linked to the failure to register employment in accordance with article 52, that is, to the circumstances that should have been recorded in the relevant registry.

Consistent with these amendments, the new Law repeals article 6 of Law 11544, which provided that each employer was required to facilitate compliance with the Working Hours Law by meeting the following requirements:

a) To make known, by means of notices posted in visible places within the establishment or in any other appropriate location, the hours at which work begins and ends, or, where work is performed in shifts, the hours at which each shift begins and ends. Such hours were required to be set so as not to exceed the limits prescribed by the Law and, once modified, could not be changed again without prior notice within the timeframe determined by the Executive Branch.

b) To disclose, in the same manner, the rest periods agreed upon during the working day that are not counted as working time.

c) To record in a registry all overtime hours actually worked pursuant to articles 3, 4, and 5 of the Law.

The mechanism imposed by this provision entailed unnecessary complexity and, in practice, was rarely complied with. This was because, in addition to the working-time records employers implement, ministerial regulations governing this provision required work schedule sheets to be certified by the enforcement authority. As a result, applying this regime frequently triggered administrative inspections, often leading to the imposition of fines and, in many cases, to claims brought by employees.

Conclusion

The amendments introduced with respect to labor registration do not entail relaxation or reduction in the level of protection afforded to employees. On the contrary, they represent a necessary and reasonable adjustment of formal obligations that had remained anchored in a framework that is no longer practical or efficient.

The obligation set forth in article 6 of Law 11544—nearly 100 years old—responded to a productive context entirely different from the current one. In practice, this provision functioned as a tax-collection mechanism that did little to enhance the effective control of working hours or to improve working conditions.

The reform brings about a genuine modernization of registration systems by aligning them with the digital transformation of the world of work, simplifying unnecessary burdens, and reducing litigation and exposure to purely formal sanctions that did not entail any real impairment of workers’ rights.