THE PROFESSIONAL STATUS OF THE PERIODISTA

LEY No. 12.908

See Background Normatives.

Art. 1o - Ratifícase with force of law from its publication, Decree-Law 7618/44, which follows, issued on 25 March 1944, on:

Art. 2o - After the promulgation of the present, the following shall be governed:


Art. 1o.- They are covered by the provisions of this Act, which shall govern the entire territory of the Republic, professional journalists specified therein.

Article 2 - Professional journalists are considered, for the purposes of this law, persons who perform regularly, by means of monetary retribution, the tasks that are their own in daily publications, or periodicals and news agencies. Such is the director, co-director, deputy director, editor-in-chief, secretary-general, editor-in-chief, editor-in-chief, editor-in-chief, editor-in-chief, reporter, writer, translator, proofreader, graphic reporter, archiver and permanent collaborator. It includes radio-telephanics, cinematographic or television companies that propel, display or television news or news of a journalistic nature, and only with respect to staff engaged in these tasks.

It is understood by a permanent collaborator that works to highlight in newspapers, newspapers, magazines, weekly, yearbooks and news agencies, through articles or notes, with signature or without it, pecuniaryly retributed by unit or inch, when it reaches a minimum of twenty-four annual collaborations.

Publicity agents or brokers and accidental or strange collaborators are excluded from this law.

Professional journalists are not considered to be involved in the drafting of journals, newspapers or magazines for ideological, political or union propaganda, without paying.

(Article replaced by Article 1 of the Act No. 15.532 B.O. 04/11/1960)


Article 3 - The competent administrative authority of the work shall be responsible for the National Journalists ' Enrolment which this law creates and exercises the following functions:

(a) To register persons covered by art. 2 and to grant professional license in accordance with the provisions of art. 11;

(b) Organizing the general archive of journalists throughout the country;

(c) To monitor strict compliance with all requirements required to obtain the professional card and the terms of its validity;

(d) To consider the claims that originate the necessary procedure for obtaining the professional license, its refusal or expiry, so that they are raised directly by the persons concerned, or in their representation by the numerically more representative associations that group the workers or workers, provided they possess legal and trade union status;

(e) Intervene in cases of non-compliance with salary regimes established in this Act and in all conflicts related to the conditions of entry, labour regime, stability, and foresight of journalists, on their own initiative or at the request of the party or the respective union entity;

(f) Apply fines and penalties established by this Act;

(g) Appropriate the identity, among other data, the order number, personal history, change of professional qualifications, tasks you perform and other reports necessary for your best organization;

(h) Organize and hold, under the regime deemed most appropriate, the labour market, in order to coordinate the supply and demand of journalistic work.


Article 4 - The registration in the national registration of journalists is compulsory and shall be accorded without restriction to persons covered by Article 2 except the exceptions expressly stated in this Act.

It is not an obligation to register those who engage exclusively in publications that persecute only a purpose of foreign commercial propaganda for the purposes of journalism in general.

Article 5 - Freedom of the press and freedom of thought are inalienable rights, and the professional card may not be denied, or be withdrawn, or cancelled, as a result of the views expressed by the journalist.

Art. 6o - It is a special cause to deny registration, to have suffered judicial conviction that has not been declared in suspense and as long as the effects of it last.

Article 7 - Registration shall be agreed upon in a term not exceeding fifteen days, if the statutory precautions have been fulfilled. During the registration process, professional tasks may be carried out, the recruitment is subject to the granting of registration.

Article 8 - Registration in the National Journalists ' Enrolment can only be cancelled or suspended:

(a) If it has been obtained by ardid or deceit;

(b) For judicial conviction that it has not been declared in suspense and as long as the effects thereof remain;

(c) If he has ceased to practise the profession for two consecutive years.

Art. 9o - The delay in agreeing to the registration, or its refusal, or the cancellation thereof, shall be recurring, within thirty days of the expiry of the legal period or having been notified the ruling relapse, to the collegiate court which determines the following article.

Art. 10. - In order to understand in the above cases, a court of five members shall be constituted: two of them appointed by the local commission of the association with numerically more representative legal personality and trade union of the journalists to which the person concerned belongs, and the other two, by the local employers. The Presidency shall be exercised by the staff member who designates the administrative authority of the work, with a vote in the event of a tie. The decisions of this body, which shall be issued within thirty days, shall be appealed within five days by the courts of work or the judge of first instance in the provinces, according to the respective procedural laws.


Art. 11. - The registration in the National Journalists ' Enrolment shall be justified by the professional card issued by the administrative authority of the work.

Art. 12. - The professional card, which constitutes an identity document, must contain the following:

(a) Name and surname of the data subject, function, photograph and other required identification data;

(b) The signature of the staff member who so designates the administrative authority of the work.

This document, which will print the rights that you agree to your holder, is personal and intransferable.

Art. 13. The professional license is compulsory and shall be required by the authorities and units of the State for the purposes of the exercise of the following rights, without other limitations than those expressly determined by the competent authority.

(a) To free transit through public roads when emergency events prevent the exercise of this right;

(b) Free access to all sources of information of public interest;

(c) Free access to railway stations, airfields, sea and river ports and any dependence of the State, whether national, provincial or municipal.

This faculty may only be used for the exercise of the profession.

Art. 14. - The professional license will prove the identity of the journalist for the purpose of obtaining, where appropriate, the reductions of rates agreed to journalism in transport, in communications through various means and, in general, for the transmission of news.

In addition, enterprises dependent on the State, or those in which the State participates financially and which are responsible for maritime, land and air transport services, shall make the reduction of fifty per cent of their common rates, in the face of the presentation of the professional card, where appropriate. To this end, the administrative authority of the work, through the regulatory procedure, will provide that in the professional record of those journalists who perform tasks directly linked in the search for information, it is expressly noted that they are empowered to avail themselves of this prerogative.

(Article replaced by Article 2 of the Act No. 23,300 B.O. 07/11/1985)

Art. 15. - Every two years, the updating of professional records and licenses will take place.

Art. 16. - The use of the card by an unauthorized person will result in the appropriate penalties under criminal law, and its abduction will be carried out. If it is verified that the holder facilitated the irregular use, it will pay a fine of fifty pesos national currency, which will be doubled in case of recidivism, and the final cancellation can be reached when this fault is repeated and serious.

Art. 17. - At the expiration of the term of updating the card, the holders must submit them for that purpose. If thirty days after the period specified in art. 15, it has not been done, the cancellation shall be declared, and the renewal shall only proceed after this period, upon payment of a surcharge of $10 m/n. on the price of the card.

The provision of the card in the other cases shall be made by payment of the amount specified by the respective regulations.


Art. 18. - Professional categories for the registration of persons covered by Article 2 shall be as follows:

(a) Aspirants: those who engage in journalistic work;

(b) Professional journalists: those who have 24 months of continuing performance in the profession have reached 20 years of age and are affiliated with the National Fund for Retirements and Journalists ' Pensions. For the purposes of the latter provision, the National Social Welfare Institute shall semesterly transmit to the administrative authority of the work the staff member ' s board referred to in this Act, conferring on it the high and low levels produced during that period.

Art. 19. - When the work is interrupted as a result of the call to weapons, mobilization or special convocation, the months of discontinuum performance shall be computed for the purposes of inc. (b) of the previous article.

Journalists owners

Art. 20. - Professional journalists shall be considered to be owners of newspapers or newspapers, magazines, weekly newspapers, anuarios and news agencies that credit to the administrative authority of work that perform permanent professional activity and are under the conditions set out in article 3, paragraph (f) of Act 12.581.


Art. 21. - In order to exercise the profession of journalist, it is necessary to register the National Journalists ' Enrolment and obtain the professional card.

Art. 22. - For the purpose of determining the eligibility conditions of the staff, as well as for setting the minimum initial and basic salary regime in the progressive scales, according to their functions, three categories of employers are established, which will be classified, in accordance with their economic capacity to pay by the national Executive.

Art. 23. - The admission of staff to journals, journals, weekly, yearbooks and news agencies will be made according to the following qualifications:

(a) Aspirants: The one who starts with journalism;

(b) Reporter: The person responsible for collecting news or information necessary for the newspaper, newspaper, magazine, weekly, yearbook and news agency in private or public sources;

(c) Chronist: The person in charge of writing exclusively, objective information in the form of news or chronic. Cables: The person responsible for preparing, increasing, synthesizing or correcting, telegraphic, telephone or radiotelphonic information;

(d) Redactor: The drafter who, apart from his informative aspect, contains subjective appraisals or general objective comments;

(e) Permanent collaborator: He who writes notes, portraits, parallels, narratives, descriptions, essays, stories, bibliographies and other writings of a literary or scientific or specialized nature of any other matter in a number not less than twenty-four per year and that by the nature of them does not correspond to the usual tasks of the journalistic organs;

(f) Publisher: The person responsible for drafting comments on guidance and criticism of the various activities of collective life;

(g) Head of Section, Assistant Secretary of Editor or Chief of News, Editor, Editor-in-Chief, Editor-in-Chief, Deputy Director, Director or Co-director: The Director of Technical Tasks Particularly Described by His Designation;

(h) Translator; graphic reporter, proofreader, archiver: Charges to perform the task indicated by his name. Dictaphonist: In charge of receiving information through the Dictaphone;

(i) Counselor: Retoucher, cartographer, drawers in charge of the technical tasks specially indicated by his designation;

(j) Retratist, caricaturist, illustrator, diagramtor: The drawings in charge of the technical tasks specially indicated by their designation.

Art. 24. The applicant shall be admitted by the employer in accordance with the following conditions:

(a) In journalistic companies, magazines, weekly magazines, yearbooks and news agencies of first category, in the proportion of one per eight with respect to their total journalistic staff;

(b) In the second category, this admission shall be made in the same conditions but in the proportion of one per five;

(c) In cases where the wording includes less than five drafters, more than one applicant may be admitted, but in less than that base, provided they earn the minimum wage.

Applicants, after two years of service and whenever they are twenty years of age, must be incorporated into any of the qualifications provided for in art. 23, incs. b) a j).

Art. 25. - Any journalistic staff may be subject, if desired by the employer for admission to a probationary period that should not be more than thirty days. Testing its suitability, it will begin to earn the minimum or basic salary, as appropriate, and will be considered definitively incorporated into the permanent staff, having to compute the probation period for all its effects.

Art. 26. - With regard to all of the journalistic staff, the employer may only admit the income of ten percent of foreigners.

Foreign news agencies, written publications in other languages and those for foreign collectivities are exempted from this obligation.

Art. 27. - The position of director, co-director, deputy director, member of the board, adviser or manager of any publication or news agency shall be performed exclusively by native or naturalized Argentines.

Exception of this provision:

(a) Persons who hold some of the above charges at the time of entry into force of this law, provided that they are not less than one year old in the performance of office;

(b) Directors, co-directors, deputy directors, executive or advisory board members, advisers or officials of foreign news agencies and written publications in other languages and those for foreign collectivities or who own the journalistic company.

Art. 28. - For both the testing of skills and the setting of minimum, basic and family salaries, salary increases by application of the scale or by extraordinary increases, as well as by change of category or other causes, the employer shall communicate its written decisions to the person concerned.

Art. 29. - The fact that the journalist is affiliated with a trade union or trade union or a political party may not be a reason for the employer to prevent his or her entry, nor a cause for dismissal.

Art. 30. - Journalists shall adjust their work to the labour standards set by the employer ' s management within the category in which it has been registered.

Art. 31. - Journalistic information agencies will not be able to supply the publications of the locality where they have their seat the information service of the same locality, which, by its nature, represents the normal work of reporters or chroniclers and other regular staff in journals and journals, except for the written publications in foreign languages.

Art. 32. - The journalist who provides services in more than two companies, performing functions of the permanent and habitual staff, shall be applied to the provisions of this statute on news agencies.

Art. 33. - (Article repealed by art. 1 of the Act No. 13.503 B.O. 20/10/1948)

Art. 34. - The schedule set for journalism staff will not be more than thirty-six hours a week. When, due to force majeure or the existence of situations typical of the profession, the day is extended, the excess will be compensated with the equivalent hours of rest in the immediate or in the week, or the extra hours will be paid with surcharge of one hundred percent. Overtime may not exceed, in any case of twenty per month.


Art. 35. - Journalists shall enjoy a continuous minimum period of rest per year, retaining the corresponding remuneration during active service in the following terms:

(a) Fifteen working days when seniority in service does not exceed 10 years;

(b) Twenty working days, when antiquity is over ten years and not exceeding twenty;

(c) Thirty working days, when seniority in service is over twenty years.

They will enjoy a rest greater than three, five and seven days, when they perform routine night tasks.

Art. 36. - Journalists shall enjoy hebdometic rest, having to take compensatory breaks in the following week when they work on national holidays, compulsory, or pay the remuneration for the trade fair with a hundred per cent surcharge.

Art. 37. - During the hebdom rest and the annual holiday period, all replacements will be performed preferably by staff of the same category, hierarchical order or specialty of functions, and the replacement may not be forced to perform more than once a year this supplementary task corresponding to vacation, and more than once a week the hebdomadario rest.

Stability; termination of employment contract

Art. 38. - The stability of the professional journalist, whatever his name and hierarchy, is an essential basis for this law provided that he is not in a position to obtain full retirement, except for the cases covered by it.

Art. 39. - These are special causes for the dismissal of professional journalists, without obligation to compensate or notice the following:

(a) The situation provided for in art. 5th of this law; intentional damage to the interests of the principal, and any act of fraud or abuse of trust established by court judgement;

(b) Physical or mental inability; or chronic contagious disease that poses a danger to staff, except when it is overcoming the initiation of service;

(c) Protracted or repeated insistences on service;

(d) Serious or repeated disobedience to orders and instructions received in the exercise of their functions;

(e) Inability to perform the duties and obligations to which they were submitted for their entry into the probationary period established in art. 25.

This last case may only be invoked in relation to the thirty days of trial.

Art. 40. The cases referred to in subparagraphs (b), (c) and (d) of the preceding article shall be documented in each case, with written notification to the person concerned.

Art. 41. - No employee may be suspended in the performance of his or her duties, without pecuniary retribution, for a period exceeding thirty days (30) within 365 days. Any suspension shall be duly documented and notified in writing to the person concerned, in detail of the causes invoked by the principal for the application of such disciplinary measure. The employer ' s decision may be appealed by the employee within five days of notification to the unitary commission. If the ruling is reversed, the employer must pay the accrued remuneration in full.

Art. 42. - Journalists will retain their employment when they are called to provide military service or mobilized or specially convened, up to thirty days after the end of the service. This provision will also apply to those who hold elective positions during the term of office, if they could not or would not wish to exercise journalism.

Art. 43. In cases of dismissals for reasons other than those expressly stated in article 39, the employer shall be obliged to:

(a) Previse the dismissal of the dependent, with one or two months in advance of the date on which the dismissal was made, depending on the age of the minor or greater three years, respectively, at the date of the cessation. The notice period will begin to be computed from the first business day of the month following the notice, and this must be done in writing. During the period of the notice, there remain the emerging obligations of the employment contract, the employer must grant the employee a two-hour daily leave, at the choice of the employee, without determining a decrease in his salary;

(b) In the event of unforeseen dismissal, the employer shall pay the dependent a replacement compensation equivalent to two or four months of retribution, depending on the age of the agent, less or more than three years at the date of the termination in the service;

(c) In all cases of unwarranted dismissal, the employer shall pay to his dependent, compensation calculated on the basis of one month ' s salary for each year or fraction greater than three months ' service. In no case shall this compensation be less than two months ' salary;

(d) Without prejudice to the payment of the awards set out in subparagraphs (b) and (c) above, the employer shall also pay its dependent, in cases of unjustified dismissal, whether or not he or she is a prior payment, a special compensation equivalent to six months ' salary;

(e) For the purpose of the determination, of the salary to be considered, for the payment of the compensation provided for in subparagraphs (b) (c) and (d) of this article, the average resulting from the receipt of the payment by the dependent in the last six months, or during the entire period of service delivery, if the latter were lower, the extra allowances, commissions, viats, except for the regular part of payment,

(Article replaced by Article 1 of the Act No. 16,792 B.O. 21/12/1965)

Art. 44. - The reduction of salaries or commissions or other means of remuneration and the lack of timeliness in payments shall be considered as dismissal without legitimate cause.

When the assignment or change of signature occurs or when the employer has not given the notice prior to the aforementioned time frames, or in the sale of the retributions or lack of payment, the obligations established by this article and the previous one will be transferred to the new signature.

If the journalist continues to work with the new one and has not received compensation for dismissal and lack of notice, he will retain his antiquity for all purposes.

Art. 45. In the event of the lack of the principal, the journalist shall be entitled to compensation, for dismissal, according to his seniority in the service. Compensation for cesanty and for lack of notice that corresponds to the journalist shall not be subject to moratoriums or embargoes, and in this regard shall govern the provisions for wages in article 4 of Act No. 11.278.

These compensations shall enjoy the privilege established in article 129 of the bankruptcy law. In the event of a voluntary cessation or withdrawal of the service, for any reason the companies will be obliged to give the journalist a working certificate containing the indications about its nature and antiquity in it.

Art. 46. - Any employee who has senior service over five years of age shall be entitled, in case of voluntary retirement, to a half-month salary bonus for each year exceeding five and up to a maximum of three months. It shall not enjoy this right insofar as it fails to notice the employer within the same time limits imposed on the latter.

Art. 47. - All provisions concerning dismissal, compensation, antiquity and disease contained in this Act have the scope and retroactivity of Act No. 11.729. The cases not specifically contemplated will be resolved according to the provisions of the same.


Art. 48. - Accidents and inculpable diseases interrupting the service of staff under this Act shall not deprive the person of the right to pay up to three months if the person concerned does not have an age of more than 10 years and up to six months, when the age is greater. The average of the last six months or the time of service will be taken as a retribution basis when it is less than that period. The journalist shall retain his post and if within the year after the three- and six-month deadlines indicated, the employer declares him to be terminated, he shall be paid compensation for dismissal, as provided for in this Act.

Art. 49. - Journalists regardless of the remuneration they receive are covered by Act No. 9688, occupational accidents and diseases; but each time one of them is in charge of a mission that carries exceptional risks such as being, national or civil war, revolutions, travel through unsafe regions or countries, it must be especially insured by the employer, so that it is covered by the risks of illness, disability or death.

The compensation may not be lower, in the event of death or physical or intellectual disability, total and permanent, to a sum equal to three times the annual salary that the journalist received at the time of the misfortune, with a total base of ten thousand pesos national currency.

Where total and permanent disability or death does not originate, compensation will be calculated taking into account the degree of disability, loss of profits and medical assistance expenses.

Art. 50. - Compensation for accident or illness established by art. 48 shall not apply to cases provided for by the Act on Occupational Accidents and Occupational Diseases or Special Risk Insurance where, in such cases, the employee is awarded a higher compensation.

In no case shall the journalist be entitled to more than one compensation for inculpable or professional accidents or diseases, except in cases covered by the national law on pensions of journalists.

Art. 51. In cases of the death of the journalist, the spouse, the descendants and the ascendants in the order and the proportion established by the Civil Code, they shall have the right to antiquity compensation in the service established by art. 43, inc. (b), limiting themselves to the descendants up to the twenty-two years of age; and without age, when they are affected by physical or intellectual disability, total and permanent, or when they are married.

In the absence of these relatives the brothers will be beneficiaries of the compensation, if the journalist died they lived under their protection and within the limits and extent set for the descendants.

In the event that there are no beneficiaries, the compensation shall be entered into a special fund of the National Fund for Retirement and Pensions for Journalists for purposes identical to those provided for in the article. 10 of Law 9688. All fines applicable for breaches of this Act shall also be entered into this fund.


Art. 52. - The three categories of employers referred to in article are used for the salary regime. 22. Workers who object to the category in which they have been included by the national executive branch shall submit the list of staff with the current salaries and those who should win in accordance with the category they challenge, mentioning, in addition, the task they perform and the length of employment of each, as well as the causes in which they base their objection. In this case, and to the sole effect of its audit, the administrative authority of the work, shall have the authority to examine the books of the claimant company and thus establish its source of income, notices, subsidies, egresses and other judgements necessary to determine the claimant ' s economic capacity to pay.

Without prejudice to this, and for the purposes indicated above, within 30 days of each exercise, the journalistic companies shall transmit to the expressed administrative authority a copy of their balances.

Art. 53. - Note for the Federal Capital the following minimum and basic salaries in the progressive scales:

(a) First-class employers:

(a) Aspirante, of any of the specialties of journalistic work: The monthly sum of three hundred pesos national currency;

(b) Archivers: The monthly sum of three hundred thirty-six pesos national currency;

(c) Reporter: The monthly sum of three hundred and seventy-two pesos national currency;

(d) Chronist, one-language translator, graphic reporter, litrist, retoucher, cartographer, cabler and dictaphonist, proofreader: The sum of four hundred and fifty-six pesos national currency;

(e) Redactor, retratist, cartoonist, illustrator, diagramtor: The monthly sum of five hundred forty pesos national currency;

(f) Head of Section: Reporters, chroniclers, editors, graphic reporters, drawers, proofreaders, archivers: The monthly sum of six hundred pesos national currency;

(g) Publisher: The monthly sum of seven hundred and twenty pesos national currency;

(h) Drafting secretary or news chief: The monthly sum of seven hundred and eighty pesos national currency;

(i) Editor-in-chief: The monthly sum of nine hundred pesos national currency;

(j) Secretary-General for drafting: The monthly sum of one thousand three hundred twenty pesos national currency;

(k) Editor and Deputy Director: The monthly sum of one thousand seven hundred forty pesos national currency;

(l) Director: The monthly sum of three thousand pesos national currency.

The translator will enjoy a monthly bonus of one hundred and twenty pesos legal currency for each new language;

(B) With second-level employers:

(a) Aspirant of any of the specialties of journalistic work: The monthly sum of two hundred sixty-four pesos national currency;

(b) Archiver: The monthly sum of two hundred and eighty-two pesos national currency;

(c) Reporter: The monthly sum of three hundred pesos national currency;

(d) Chronist, single-language translator, graphic reporter, litrist, retoucher, cartographer, cabler and dictaphonist, proofreader: The monthly sum of three hundred forty-eight national currency;

(e) Redactor, retratist, cartoonist, plotter: The monthly sum of four hundred eight pesos national currency;

(f) Head of Section: Reporters, chroniclers, editors, graphic reporters, drawers, proofreaders and archivers: The monthly sum of four hundred sixty-eight national currency;

(g) Publisher: The monthly sum of five hundred forty pesos national currency;

(h) Prosecretary of the drafting or head of news: The monthly sum of five hundred and eight eight pesos national currency;

(i) Editor-in-chief: The monthly sum of six hundred and seventy-two pesos national currency;

(j) General drafting secretary: The monthly sum of seven hundred and twenty pesos national currency;

(k) Editor-in-Chief and Deputy Director: The monthly sum of nine hundred and sixty pesos national currency;

(l) Director: The monthly sum of one thousand two hundred pesos national currency.

The translator will enjoy a monthly bonus of ninety pesos legal currency for each new language.

C) (Section repealed by art. 2° Act No. 13.503 B.O. 20/10/1948Note Infoleg: by art. 2° of the Act No. 13.503 B.O. 20/10/1948 states that enterprises which, at the time of the enactment of this law, shall automatically be transferred to the one established in paragraph (b) of this article)

(Note Infoleg: the rates of increase to the salaries mentioned in this article may be consulted by clicking on the link "This rule is complemented or modified by standard X(s).")

Art. 54. - Outside the Federal Capital radius, the basic salaries shall be set by joint commissions established and chaired by the administrative authority, establishing the scales for increments commensurate with those set out in Article 53 for the different specialities of work in the Federal Capital, from a minimum wage of three hundred and fifty-eight pesos ($ 358) for the first-class and three hundred and thirty-six pesos ($336). For journalists who work in newspapers in the interior of the Republic and who practice the profession, as an accessory and not fundamental function, the wage fixation will be paid to the parity commissions.

(Article replaced by Article 5 of the Act No. 13.503 B.O. 20/10/1948)

Art. 55. - Based on the minimum set in the arts. 53 and 54, persons covered by this Act shall enjoy a monthly increase in their remuneration, progressive by age, as follows: (Note Infoleg: by art. 4° of the Act No. 13.503 B.O. 20/10/1948 is increased by forty per cent (40 per cent) the antiquity scales for the first and second categories set out in this article, deleting the third category established by that article)

Art. 56. - For the purposes of the previous article, the time in which the journalist has served as a seeker shall not be computed. For all other purposes, antiquity will be computed from the entry of the journalist to the company. The cessions, changes of signature, transformation of company, of organization or of forms in the publication, will in no case harm the antiquity.

Art. 57. - The increases set by art. 55 shall be made on the basis of the length of time that the beneficiaries have in the enterprises to the sanction of this law.

Art. 58. - Salaries established in arts. 54, 55 and 56 will not exclude the increases to which the journalist could be credited on the basis of the merits and demonstrated capacity in the performance of his duties.

Art. 59. - The collective agreements of journalistic work, which could be agreed between companies and their staff, shall not establish minimum salaries or salary scales less than those set by this law, as well as those that could be fixed in the future.

Art. 60. - In no case shall journalists lose the advantages that they have obtained prior to this law, and the modifications of the hours or changes in the working conditions involving the loss of them, shall make the employer incur the payment of the amount determined for the termination indemnity.

Art. 61. - Persons covered by this law who earn up to five hundred pesos per month shall receive an additional payment of ten pesos per month for each child under sixteen years of age.

Art. 62. - Employers shall send to the administrative authority of the work within thirty (30) days, from the date of promulgation of the present, a detailed table, under affidavit, in which they shall record the payroll of the staff in their charge, specifying the date of entry, nationality, since it performs, salaries that receive and corresponding increases. This table should be adjusted in a whole to be sent to the National Fund for Retirement and Pension of Journalists.

Art. 63. - Correspondents who perform in provincial capitals and national territories, as well as in the cities of Rosario and Bahía Blanca, credit their professional status according to the specifications of art. 2o, and represent journalistic companies of the Federal Capital, will have the same retribution as that set by the company to their staff in the specified functions they perform. The newspapers of the interior that serve as correspondents, professional journalists, will apply the same standard established above.

Art. 64. - The units of the administration, distributions and judicial authorities may not have any publications of any kind, conditioned on a fee regime, in newspapers, magazines, newspapers and broadcasting bodies that use staff under this statute that have not previously complied with the provisions of this law, the pensions and pensions of journalists and all the social legislation that protects the rights of the professional journalist.

The national executive branch shall agree with the provincial governments to implement these provisions within their respective jurisdictions.

Art. 65. - Persons who are used temporarily or accidentally for the information or chronicle of certain meetings or events will be paid for each chronic commentary with fifteen, ten or seven pesos, per piece, respectively, according to the category of the journalistic organ or news agency. If these persons were used more than three days per week, they should be incorporated into the permanent staff regime. The person who merely transmits the news of the expressed nature will receive five pesos for each meeting, regardless of the category of the company.

Art. 66. - Retributions to persons referred to in the previous article, who have attained 18 years of age, as well as those who perform temporary or accidental tasks of this kind, whether by jornal or part, are subject to the system of contributions provided by the law on retirements and pensions for journalists.

Art. 67. - The retribution of correspondents not covered by art. 63, as well as of permanent collaborators, is subject to the free agreement of the parties. It is also subject to the free agreement of the parties to the retribution of general editors, editors, deputy directors and directors, when they have a financial interest in the company.

Art. 68. - During the trial periods, the professional journalist will receive the monthly amount due to the scale of the art. 53. In the same circumstances the applicant will receive the monthly amount assigned to him in the category in which the employer is placed.

Art. 69. - Payment of assets, salaries and wages shall be made between 1 and 5 of each month, or between these days and 15 or 20 when it is for a fortnightly settlement, and on Saturdays when it is weekly. The remuneration set out in article 65 shall be paid within 24 hours of the presentation of the chronicle or comment. These payments shall be controlled by officials of the administrative authority of work when it deems appropriate or by denunciation of the union entity.


Art. 70. - Issues relating to the salaries, working hours and conditions of journalistic staff, which are not covered by the present statute, shall be resolved by parity, renewables every two years, presided by an official who shall designate the administrative authority of the work.

Art. 71. - The parity commissions to understand in the cases mentioned in the previous article as in the collective labour conventions shall be constituted with two representatives of the employers and two of the employees and where there is no possibility of designations for any cause shall be made ex officio by the administrative authority of the work.

To that end, the professional body with a person ' s body and the board or employers ' entity shall promptly communicate the designation of its representatives.

Art. 72. - All members shall have a voice and a vote, and the president shall have the power to decide in the event of a tie, without being obliged to take action on any of the proposals in debate. The resolutions will be taken by a simple majority and the votes will be individual.

Art. 73. - The parity commission will meet at least once a month, or whenever one of its members requests it in writing, and will be quoted by its president in advance of 48 hours. Likewise, the chairperson shall summon the commission when there is a matter to consider, by virtue of which the employers must grant the permits that for the purpose and for the performance of their duties require the union representatives; if any of the members fail to attend two consecutive meetings of the commission, the question shall be dismissed by their right and at the second meeting, after 30 minutes of the fixed time, the matter shall be resolved in an irrevocable manner by the attendees. In the latter case, the resolution of the presidency will be founded.

Art. 74. - By decision of the president or at the request of the parties, the meeting may be requested, of the persons it deems necessary to provide better.

Any action taken at the meetings shall be held in writings which shall be signed by all members present, conferring on them the matter dealt with, the basis of the parties and the resolution adopted.

The resolutions of the parity commissions shall be final and shall be communicated immediately to the parties concerned for their implementation, subject to the penalties provided for in this Act.

Except for those resolutions on matters dealt with in articles 38 to 46 of the present, which will be appealed to the National Labour Appeals Chamber within five (5) days of notification.

(Article replaced by Article 1 of the Act No. 20,358 B.O. 16/05/1973)

Art. 75. - The parity commissions are specially empowered to reduce to 40% the scales set in the arts. 53, 54 and 55 and to modify the respective professional categories, with respect to journalism publications whose staff does not exceed five professional journalists.


Art. 76. - The radio-telphonic companies that have their personal service included in the provisions of this law shall make to it the discount established in art. b. 7th Decree 14.535/44. In turn, such companies will make the contributions set by the art. 7th of the same decree, without prejudice to the corresponding contribution to the State.

Art. 77. - Journalist companies may not use the services of contractors, subcontractors or concessionaires, if they did not pay their staff the minimum wage, were not within the base salary scale and did not make the contributions of the National Fund for Retirements and Journalists ' Pensions, Act No. 12.581.

They extend to contractors, subcontractors or concessionaries of any form of journalistic work, all obligations of employers established in this Act.

Each journalistic company will be jointly responsible for the failure to comply with the obligations of contractors, subcontractors or dealers, when they owed the corresponding amount up to two months of remuneration, solidarity that is extended in cases of accidents and diseases related to the tasks entrusted.

In the event that a diary possesses two or more persons entitled to property on it, they shall be constituted as a law society within the end of one hundred and twenty days from the date of promulgation of this law. Failure to comply with this requirement in the foreseen term will involve the owner or owners who are guilty of default by default or refusal, in a fine of five thousand to one hundred thousand pesos national currency of legal course, in which case a new period of sixty days will be set for the performance of this article. If a new mora or negative is produced, new mandatory 60-day deadlines, subject to the same penalty, shall be set.

Art. 78. The employer who violates the provisions set forth in this Act shall be punished by a fine of one hundred to one thousand pesos national currency of legal course (weights 100 to 1000 m/n), by person or infringement in the first complaint, which may be doubled in case of recidivism. An offence shall be deemed repeated provided that the offence is committed within five years of the first.

Art. 79. Fines shall be effected by the procedure established by law 11.570 in the Federal Capital and national territories, and in provinces establishing their respective laws and in accordance with the following special provisions:

(a) The staff member expressly appointed by the administrative authority in public hearing, fixed and notified with three days in advance, shall read the record of infringement and shall receive the dismissal of the alleged offender, the testimony of the employee who verified the infringement and shall receive the evidence that he or she shall perform within three days, then rendering the appropriate decision;

(b) The resolution may be appealed within the third day, subject to a fine, to the justice of work in the Federal Capital and national territories, and to the appropriate jurisdiction, in the provinces, in accordance with the respective procedural laws.

Art. 80. - All administrative or judicial actions or processes carried out by professional journalists as employees of the companies to the public authorities, related to the enforcement of this law, shall be made in simple paper and shall be exempt from any tax charges.

Art. 81. - The provisions of this law shall be declared in public order and shall be null and void of any convention of parties that modifies to the detriment of the staff the benefits it establishes.

Art. 82. All provisions opposing this law are repealed.


Art. 83. - (Article Derogated by Article 2 of the Act No. 16,792 B.O. 21/12/1965)

Art. 84. - In those localities of the interior of the country where the qualifications of companies have been fixed in a timely manner and the basic salaries determined by the parity commissions will be adjusted directly by such assignments, automatically increasing them by 40 per cent.

Art. 85. - Contact the executive branch.

Art. 3o - Contact the executive branch.

Given in the meeting room of the Argentine Congress, in Buenos Aires, on December eighteenth, a thousand nine hundred and forty-six.

A. Tesaires-S. A. Job. - Ricardo C. Guardo. - L. Zaballa Carbó.

Background Regulations:

- Article 14 replaced by art. 1 Act No. 22,337 B.O. 05/12/1980;

- Article 83, Note Infoleg: by art. 1 Act No. 13.040 B.O. 14/10/1947 is extended until 31 December 1949 to the provisions of this article;

- Article 43 replaced by art. 1 Act No. 15.532 B.O. 04/11/1960;Note Infoleg: by art. 1 Decree No. 12978/1960 art. 1 of the Bill registered under No. 15.532, as soon as it replaces article 43 of the aforementioned legal body)

- Article 83 repealed by art. 1 Act No. 15.532 B.O. 04/11/1960. (Note Infoleg: by art. 1 Decree No. 12978/1960 article 1 of the bill registered under No. 15.532, as soon as article 83 of the Statute of the Professional Journalist is repealed, article 2 of Act No. 12.908-)