On March 23rd, 2022, the Official Gazette of Argentina published the Decree No. 144/2022, which regulated Section 179 of the Employment Contract Law, regarding the childcare service to be provided by companies.
Among its provisions, the Decree sets forth that those establishments with 100 or more employees, must offer on-site day-care centres for children between 45 days and 3 years of age. This will be applicable to them, regardless of the employment conditions of their employees and including both employees being of the establishment and those being dependents of other companies but providing services there.
The centres must comply with the licensing and fitting-out laws of each jurisdiction and can be:
Consortium spaces, for those employers whose establishments are located within the same industrial park, or within a distance of less than 2 kilometres.
Subcontracted spaces, as long as they comply with the corresponding provisions.
Notwithstanding the aforementioned, the Decree establishes that Collective Bargaining Agreements can state the replacement of this obligation by the payment of a non-remunerative amount of money to the employees, as a reimbursement of childcare or care services costs, as long as those costs were duly justified with documentation issued by an authorised institution, or when they originate from the work of personnel registered under the Special Employment Regime for Domestic Employees. In these cases, the reimbursement shall not be less than the 40% of the monthly salary of the category of “Assistance and Care of Persons” provided for in the law regulating the work of domestic employees, or the amount actually spent, if less. In addition, in the case of part-time employment contracts, the reimbursement must be proportional to that of a full-time employee.
Finally, the Decree also states that in the case of those employees hired under the home office modality and of those who work attached to the companies’ establishments, this obligation can also be fulfilled through the payment of a non-remunerative amount of money, under the conditions previously mentioned.
Companies must comply with the provisions of this Decree as of March 23rd, 2023. The failure to do so will be considered as a very serious labour infringement under the terms of Law 25.212.
This report should not be considered as legal or any other type of advice by Allende & Brea.
