Labour Modernisation Act: What the bill says

• Digitalisation of Labour Registration: Proposes to simplify and digitalise registration obligations, establishing that no additional requirements may be imposed beyond those set by the Revenue and Customs Control Agency (ARCA - Agencia de Recaudación y Control Aduanero).
  
  
• Compensation: Specifies the concepts included in the calculation basis. It ratifies that severance pay is the only compensation, excluding additional civil claims. It establishes that, through a Collective Labour Agreement, the parties may replace the current compensation scheme with a severance fund or system, the cost of which shall be borne by the employer, whether integrated with the Labour Assistance Funds or not.
  
  
• Social Benefits: Expands and clarifies non-remunerative benefits (meals, nursery, workwear, training programmes/courses/seminars, school supplies, among others).
  
  
• Salary Payment: Enables payment in national or foreign currency and allows workers to receive payment via digital wallets.
  
  
• Working Hours: The parties may voluntarily agree on overtime compensation schemes, specifying how the system will operate and be monitored, while respecting minimum rest periods (12 hours between shifts and 35 hours of weekly rest). Authorises the use of overtime schemes, hour banks, compensatory time off, among others, and stipulates that the hour bank may be used to compensate for a longer working day on one day with a shorter working day on another, provided the legal maximum weekly working hours are not exceeded.
  
  
• Sick Leave: Specifies requirements for the validity of medical certificates: they must contain the medical diagnosis, treatment, and the number of days of prescribed rest, and be issued nationwide by authorised medical professionals and digitally signed via electronic platforms authorised by Law No. 27,553.
  
  
• Professional Training: Establishes the “Programa de Formación Laboral Básica” (Basic Labour Training Programme) to guarantee minimum competencies. The programme will have two components: Basic Socio-Labour Competencies, for the development of reading comprehension, oral expression, mathematical reasoning, digital literacy, and values governing our social order according to the National Constitution; and Initial Labour Training, for the development of skills required in one of the branches of economic productive activity, with regional priority and in view of future demand.
  
  
• Labour Credits: It establishes the adjustment of labour credits due to monetary depreciation based on the variation resulting from the Consumer Price Index (IPC - Índice de Precios al Consumidor) plus an annual interest rate of 3%, from the date each sum is due until actual payment. 

• Establishes a Regime for Private Passenger Transport and/or Delivery Services using technological platforms, ensuring the independence and rights of couriers and drivers, but without a direct employment relationship with the platforms.
  
  
• Provides for the independent provider’s freedom to connect to the technological platform. Independent providers will have the right to know the criteria used by platforms for grouping, which must be expressed in clear language and made digitally available to the extent permitted by the platform’s commercial secrecy rights.
  
  
• Sets out the obligations, responsibilities, and rights of technological platforms and independent providers, including the latter’s obligation to be duly registered with the relevant tax authorities and to comply with tax and social security obligations.

• Creates the Labour Assistance Fund (FAL - Fondo de Asistencia Laboral) to cover severance payments, with mandatory monthly contributions of 3% of remuneration. The FAL is optional, and if the fund is insufficient to pay the full severance, the employer must pay the difference.
  
  
• Provides that returns, interest, and any other income from FAL investments are exempt from Income Tax and not subject to Value Added Tax. Substitute severance payments made to workers under the Regime will receive, for Income Tax purposes, the same treatment as severance payments.
  
  
• Employers adhering to the FAL will have a 3% reduction in employer contributions to the Argentine Integrated Pension System (SIPA - Sistema Integrado Previsional Argentino). Failure to pay in full and/or failure to pay at least three-monthly periods during the six months covered by ARCA’s semi-annual compliance review will result in a 3% increase in SIPA contributions for the omitted periods.

• Implements the Labour Formalisation Incentive Regime (RIFL - Régimen de Incentivo a la Formalización Laboral), which reduces employer contribution rates for 48 months for new hires representing a net increase in staff and corresponding to recently unemployed workers, self-employed individuals, or people from the public sector.
  
  
• The RIFL will be in force for one year from the first day of the second month following the law’s entry into force.
  
  
• Those who become employers from 10 December 2025 onwards may apply the RIFL conditions, up to the maximum number of workers determined by the Regulation, which may not exceed 80% of the workforce.
  
  
• The RIFL benefit is optional for the employer; if this option is not exercised from the start of the new employment relationship, the benefit cannot be used retroactively for the period(s) in which it was not taken.
  
  
• Establishes the Promotion of Registered Employment (PER - Promoción del Empleo Registrado), which covers the regularisation of unregistered or poorly registered employment relationships.
  
  
• The National Executive Branch will regulate the effects of regularisation and determine the percentages of debt forgiveness to be applied, which shall not be less than 70% of the total amount owed. Incentives may be established for lump-sum payment and special benefits for Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises.
  
  
• Workers regularised under PER will be entitled to count up to 60 months of service with contributions, or the lesser number of months regularised, calculated on a monthly amount equivalent to the minimum living wage or, if applicable, the declared remuneration.
  
  
• The regularisation of employment relationships must be completed within 180 calendar days from the date of entry into force of the Regulations of Title XXII “Promoción del Empleo Registrado” of the Act.
  
  
• The benefits of PER will be available under lump-sum payment or instalment plans, under the terms and conditions set by ARCA, and subject to the following parameters:
  
  • Maximum of 72 instalments for the payment plan,
  • Maximum financing rate of 12% nominal per annum,
  • Advance payment of up to 5% of the regularised debt,
  • Possibility of a discount of up to 10% of the consolidated debt for lump-sum payment, and
  • Possibility of segmenting the above parameters, prioritising the age of the debt, company size, number of regularised employees, and the amount of the regularisation.

• Creates the Medium Investment Incentive Regime (RIMI - Régimen de Incentivo para Medianas Inversiones) to encourage medium-sized national and foreign investments, promote economic and value chains development, strengthen competitiveness in various economic sectors, increase exports of goods and services, and foster job creation.
  
  
• RIMI applies to companies qualifying as micro, small, or medium-sized (the latter up to Category Tier 2 inclusive) making productive investments during the first two years from the regime’s entry into force. Minimum investment amounts are US$150,000 for microenterprises, US$600,000 for small enterprises, US$3,500,000 for medium Tier 1, and US$9,000,000 for medium Tier 2.
  
  
• Companies adhering to the regime may enjoy tax benefits for productive investments, such as accelerated depreciation in income tax and refunds of VAT tax credits generated by productive investments.
  
  
• For RIMI purposes, productive investments are those aimed at the acquisition, processing, manufacture and/or import of new movable goods (except automobiles), depreciable for income tax purposes, as well as the execution of works directly related to the development of productive activities.

• Ultra-activity of collective negotiations agreements: Limits the automatic validity of clauses once the agreement expires. Only regulatory clauses will remain in force until a new agreement comes into force or there is an express extension by the parties.
  
  
• Priority of agreements: Collective agreements of a broader scope may not modify or determine the content of agreements of a narrower scope. Furthermore, it establishes that a narrower scope agreement prevails, within its personal and territorial scope of representation, over a broader scope agreement, whether prior or subsequent.
  
  
• Regulation of trade union assemblies: Establishes clear rules for their holding, such as prior employer authorisation and the requirement to not affect the normal operation of the company’s activities, and specifies that the workers will not earn wages during the time they participate in these assemblies.
  
  
• Incorporates telecommunications, commercial aviation, port traffic control, customs and migration services, and education at all levels (except university) as essential services.
  
  
• Creates the category ‘Activities of transcendental importance’, including the production of medicines and/or hospital supplies, goods and/or services for all activities affected by export commitments, land and underground transport of people and/or goods, radio and television, aircraft and ship repair, all airport, logistics, banking, financial, hotel, catering, and e-commerce services, continuous industrial activities—including steelmaking and aluminium production, chemical, cement, mining, refrigeration, postal, food and beverage distribution and marketing, agriculture and its value chain, the production and distribution of construction materials, and the food industry throughout its value chain.
  
  
• Collective Labour Disputes: Sets limits on disputes that may affect the normal provision of essential services and activities of transcendental importance, guaranteeing minimum services. Also incorporates into Act No. 25,877 on Labour Regulations six sections on procedures for strikes and direct action measures.
  
  
• It establishes that a company union may be granted legal status when its number of contributing members is, during a minimum and continuous period of six months prior to its presentation, higher than the number of contributing members of other union organizations within the same company.
  
  
• Unfair Practices: Defines which practices are considered unfair and contrary to the ethics of professional labour relations by trade unions and their representatives. These include:
  
  • Intentionally intervening or interfering with the company’s activity by calling assemblies,
  • Promoting compulsory and involuntary affiliation of workers,
  • Taking reprisals against workers who do not join a strike, and
  • Refusing to negotiate collectively with employer representatives.

Unfair practices will be sanctioned with fines, the amounts of which are established in Act No. 25,212 to be collected by the labour administrative authority and credited to a special account for the improvement of labour inspection services.

• Proposes updating losses incurred in fiscal years from 2025 onwards, taking into account the variation between the closing month of the fiscal year in which they originated and the closing month of the fiscal year being settled, based on the General Consumer Price Index (IPC - Índice de Precios al Consumidor Nivel General) provided by the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INDEC - Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas y Censos).
  
  
• Proposes amending two subsections of Article 26 of the Income Tax Act, establishing that the following will be exempt from tax:
  
  • Interest arising from savings accounts, special savings accounts, fixed-term deposits, third-party deposits or other forms of public fund raising in institutions subject to the legal regime of financial entities, and those relating to financial trusts established in the country (except digital currencies), whether or not listed on stock exchanges or markets authorised by National Securities Commission (CNV - Comisión Nacional de Valores).
  • The rental value of the dwelling and, for fiscal years beginning on or after 1 January 2026, income from the rental of properties for residential purposes.
  • The result from the sale of real estate and the transfer of rights over real estate by individuals and undivided inheritance), where sold or transferred from 1 January 2026.
  • Results from their purchase, sale, exchange, barter, or disposal, whether or not listed on stock exchanges or markets authorised by the CNV, of individuals and undivided inheritance, for fiscal years beginning on or after 1 January 2026.
    
    

• Owners of grazing and/or feedlot establishments may choose to value their livestock by the methods described in subsections (a) or (b) of Article 57 of Act No. 27,430 on Income Tax:
  
  • Take as the base value for each species the value of the most sold category during the last three months of the fiscal year, which will be equal to 60% of the weighted average price obtained from sales of that category in the said period; or
  • The price -per head and without distinction of categories- will be equal for each species to 60% of the weighted average price arising from sales or purchases in the last three months of the fiscal year, or, if neither, from transactions recorded for the species in the market where the farmer usually operates.
    
    

• Amends, for fiscal years beginning on or after 1 January 2026, the scale of rates for net taxable income of capital companies as follows:
  
  • Accumulated net taxable profit of more than $0 up to $5,000,000 will pay $0 plus 25% on the excess of $0.
  • Accumulated net taxable profit of more than $5,000,000 up to $50,000,000 will pay $1,250,000 plus 27% on the excess of $5,000,000.
  • Accumulated net taxable profit of more than $5o,000,000 and above will pay $14,750,000 plus 31.5% on the excess of $50,000,000.
    
    
• Repeals the tax provided for in Act No. 24,674 on Internal Taxes for insurance, mobile and satellite telephone services, luxury goods and vehicles, recreational or sports boats, and aircraft.

• Reduces to 10.5% the rate applicable to the supply of electricity used in irrigation systems and/or equipment for the agro-industrial sector (currently taxed at 21%).