LEY N° 12.981

Social benefits are set for House of Renters.

Buenos Aires, May 5, 1947.

See Background Normatives.

WHY:

Scope of the Act

Article 1 - Employees and workers occupied by any person or company, in buildings intended to produce rent, whatever the legal character of the employer, are covered by the provisions of this law.

It also includes staff who perform equal tasks in farms subject to a property regime in accordance with the provisions of Law 13.512. (Paragraph incorporated by art. 1 of the Act No. 14.095 B.O. 29/10/1951)

Definition

Art. 2o - Any person who works in a property, performing in a habitual and exclusive way on behalf of the owner or usufructuario, the tasks of care, surveillance and other accessory services of the same, whatever the form of its retribution, will be considered for the purposes of this law in charge of rent house.

Income assistants, lifters and pawns who provide services permanently are assimilated to those responsible for the purpose of this law.

Those who possessing a notebook granted to their name, do not work exclusively for an employer in real estates that redeem more than $1,000 per month, will also be considered to be in charge of renting houses, when they are complemented by family members who live in it. (Paragraph incorporated by art. 1 of the Act No. 13.263 B.O. 29/09/1948)

Benefits

Art. 3 - The following benefits shall be enjoyed by staff under this Act:

(a) A rest not less than twelve (12) consecutive hours between the cessation of one day and the beginning of the next, which will be agreed upon at the agreed hours by the parties taking into account the nature of the property, its location and the modalities of the provision of the service.

When the end of the day was prior to hour 21, the rest shall be without prejudice to the attention of the central services, which shall be properly rendered in extension fixed by the employer.

Night rest may only be interrupted in cases of urgency;

(b) An intermediate rest of four (4) hours run for those workers who perform tasks in the morning and afternoon hours, whose beginning will be set by the employer;

(c) A weekly rest of thirty-five hours (35) from the hour 13 of the Sabbath to the hour 24 of the Sunday without a decrease in the remuneration;

(d) A minimum and continuing period of annual paid rest for the following periods:

Twelve (12) business days when seniority in employment does not exceed five (5) years.

Twenty (20) business days when antiquity is over five (5) years and does not exceed ten (10).

Twenty-four (24) working days when antiquity is greater than ten (10) years and does not exceed twenty (20).

Twenty-eight (28) business days when antiquity exceeds twenty (20) years.

When the holiday period is twenty (20) days or more, the worker may request the fraction of the same in two (2) periods.

The employer shall grant the annual leave within the period from 1 October to 30 April of the following year. In the event of fractionation, one of the periods may be granted outside the prescribed time limit, at the request of the worker. It is reserved for the employer to set the date of initiation of the vacation, which must be communicated to the worker in advance not less than thirty (30) days.

It will be applied as soon as it does not object to the above provisions as set out in Title V of the labour contract regime, approved by Act No. 20,744.

During the weekly rest and during the holiday period, the functions of the manager and the assimilated staff may be performed by an alternate, whose retribution will be carried out by the employer. The performance of the supplement by the wife and children of the holder or by another person covered by the benefits of this Act is prohibited, which performs permanent functions even when it is in another property and with another employer;

(e) Compensation for accidents in accordance with the laws governing the matter.

(Article replaced by Article 1 of the Act No. 21.239 B.O. 02/01/1976)

Obligations

Article 4 - It will be the duty of employees and workers to respect the employer, to obey their orders, to take care of the things entrusted to their custody, to perform their tasks with diligence and honesty, to notify them of any impediment to perform them, being responsible for any damage caused by dolo or grave fault.

In the event of illness, it should allow for medical verification by the employer. You will give notice to the same with 30 days in advance when you decide to terminate the contract.

Causes of cessation

Art. 5o - The only causes of staff cessation are:

(a) Judicial conviction for offences of public action and for offences of private action against the employer or its tenants, except for those committed on the basis of union activity. Where there is a pretrial detention for an offence committed in the property, the employer shall have the right to suspend the employee or worker. If he relapses absolution or dismissal he will be repaid in office. In the latter case, if the process has been promoted by an employer ' s complaint or complaint, the worker ' s employee shall be entitled to the remuneration he ceased to receive;

(b) Abandonment of service; repeated and unjustified insistences or disobediences of your duties and the orders you receive in the performance of your duties;

For the purposes of the repetition, only the events in the past six months will be taken into account;

(c) Chronic contagious disease that constitutes a danger to the tenants of the house, upon payment of the corresponding compensation in accordance with article 10;

(d) Damage to the principal ' s interests due to injury or serious fault of the employee or repeated failure to comply with the other obligations set out in article 4 of this Act. The resignation from the work of the employee or worker who is not personally formulated by the employee before the application authority shall be null and void.

Stability

Article 6 - The employees and workers of rent houses have the right to stability in employment, provided that they have an age greater than sixty days in the same.

In the event of the owner ' s death, or sale of the building, the owner ' s obligations shall be held by the heirs, or by the buyer.

If the employer demolishes the property or is expropriated, the same as if it does not dispens from the services of the employee or worker, without the causes specified in Article 5, it shall pay for compensation, as follows:

Three months ' pay in advance, under the conditions set out in Act No. 11.729, which shall be communicated by telegram;

A month's salary for each year or fraction of employment.

Remuneration

Article 7 - The salary of the staff shall be fixed by the National Institute of Remuneration, established by Law 12.921. As long as the retributions by the Institute concerned were not established, the following minimum salaries should be fixed:

If in the building whose rent is not greater than $1,000 there is a manager who will perform exclusively for the employer, the worker shall have the right to the minimum wage set by the salary scale of subparagraph (a), in no case may the employee or worker be subject to the working relationship or the conditions in which this law is sanctioned, where they are most beneficial.

It is understood by central services to the heating, hot water, refrigeration, waste incinerators and others not listed in this law, whether their operation or control directly attended by the staff, or automatic.

In the houses whose rent exceeds $4,000 per month it must collaborate in the functions of the manager, one or more assistants, proportion to be determined by the Paritarian Commission, created by article 19 of this law, according to the characteristics of the property.

Remuneration from employees and workers at the date of the sanction of this law cannot be diminished by any concept, when they are superior to those set forth in it.

The prescribed remunerations shall have a one-year period of vignece, which the Parity Commission established by article 19 shall proceed to review. The remuneration set by the Joint Commission shall be compulsory for employees and employers.

In the cases referred to in the last paragraph of article 1, for farms that do not produce current income, the technical agencies of the national administration shall determine their potential income, for the sole purpose of determining the remuneration of the staff covered by the provisions of this law. (Paragraph incorporated by art. 2° of the Act No. 14.095 B.O. 29/10/1951)

(Article replaced by Article 2 of the Act No. 13.263 B.O. 29/09/1948)

Art. 8 - The person in charge of rents or assimilated staff shall be entitled to an increase in his or her salary every three years of twenty monthly pesos, which shall be applied taking into account the date on which the employee began to serve and up to a maximum of five trienniums.

(Article replaced by Article 2 of the Act No. 13.263 B.O. 29/09/1948)

Accidents or illness

Article 9 - In the event of an accident or inculpable illness that prevents the employee or worker from fulfilling his or her obligations, he or she shall have the right to be paid full retribution up to three months after the interruption of his or her duties, if he or she has an antiquity in the service less than five years and up to six months, if the antiquity is greater, during which he or she may continue to occupy the rooms assigned to him, unless they suffer from other diseases.

As long as the impossibility of the employee or worker has lasted, his duties will be carried out by an alternate paid by the employer, who will make this condition known to the authority of application. Complying with this requirement, the seniority of the alternates will not be computable for the purposes of any compensation while the holder is within the terms of earning their wages for illness and employment conservation. If the holder does not resume his or her duties within one year, after the expiration of three to six months, as long as his or her age, terms during which the employer has an obligation to retain his or her employment, the alternate shall be confirmed as effective, with the rights and obligations thereof, computing his or her age from his or her income.

Compensation for accidents or illness set out in the first section of this article shall not apply to the cases provided for in the Employment Accidents and Occupational Diseases Act, when the latter relates to the employee greater compensation.

Compensation

Art. 10 - The compensation corresponding to the staff shall not be subject to moratorium or embargoes, or to discounts of any kind. These compensations shall enjoy the privilege set out in article 129 of the bankruptcy Act.

Death

Art. 11 - In the event of the death of the employee, the spouse, the descendants and ascendants in the order and proportion established by the Civil Code shall have the right to compensation for seniority in the service, analogous to that provided for in article 157, paragraph 8, of the Commercial Code, limiting the offspring to persons under the age of 22, and without term of age when they are disabled for work. In the absence of these relatives, the brothers will be beneficiaries of compensation, if the employee died they lived under their protection and within the limits set for the descendants.

Art. 12 - The amount of compensation shall be deducted from the amount of compensation which the beneficiary receives from cash or insurance companies for acts or foresight contracts made by the principal.

Obligations of the employer

Art. 13 - The staff who work exclusively for an employer, either as a manager, assistant or caregiver, shall have the right to enjoy the use of hygienic and adequate room and to receive the necessary work tools for the performance of the tasks in his or her office. In the rental buildings where housing has been built for the staff concerned, the original destination of the same may not be altered to the detriment of the worker.

If it is impossible to comply with the first clause of this article, the worker shall be entitled to a supplement to his salary of $64 per month.

(Article replaced by Article 2 of the Act No. 13.263 B.O. 29/09/1948)

Workbook

Art. 14 - All persons covered by Article 2 of this Law shall be notified of a workbook with the characteristics to be determined by the respective regulations, which shall be issued free of charge by the National Register of Placements of the Ministry of Labour and Security.

Art. 15 - In order to obtain such a notebook, the interested party shall submit the following documents to the office in charge of the exhibition:

(a) Certificate of good health;

(b) Certificate of good conduct issued by the respective police authority;

(c) Personal identity documents;

(d) Work certificate issued by the employer. In the event of opposition, the ex officio authority may proceed to the corresponding verification, without prejudice to the application to employers of the penalties provided for in this law.

The documents referred to in subparagraphs (a) and (b) should be renewed every two years by the person concerned. This renewal shall not be required when the worker follows the orders of the same employer.

(Article replaced by Article 2 of the Act No. 13.263 B.O. 29/09/1948)

Art. 16 - The National Register of Placements may not make any placement of this kind of workers without the prior presentation of the workbook by the interested party, as provided for in the previous article.

It is the duty of the principal to require his employee to submit the workbook within a minimum period of three months from the date of sanction of this law,

In each case, the number of the booklet, name and domicile of the worker, name and domicile of the employer, as well as the other agreed conditions for the provision of services, shall be communicated to the National Register of Placements.

Art. 17 - The National Register of Places, under appropriate classification, shall reserve the information mentioned in the previous article, for statistical purposes and as evidence in case of judicial or extrajudicial claims.

Art. 18 - In addition to the annotations referred to in the previous articles, the employer shall write down the following records in the workbook:

(a) Income date of the worker and stipulated remuneration;

(b) Monthly confirmation of the payment of the agreed salary;

(c) The time on which the annual rest referred to in article 3 (c) was agreed;

(d) If the worker so requests, record his time at his service.

The employer is strictly prohibited from making personal recommendations on employee behaviour.

Unity Commission

Art. 19. - Institute a central parity commission consisting of two workers' delegates and two employers' delegates, which will act by the numerically most representative organizations. This Commission shall be appreciated by an official of the Ministry of Labour and Security and shall have conciliatory and voluntary arbitration functions in conflicts between the parties, without prejudice to other powers expressly agreed to by this Act. The regional delegations of the Ministry designated for this purpose may also include parity subcommissions, whose powers shall be limited to the conciliatory and arbitration functions conferred by this law on the central parity. The awards issued by the subcommissions shall be raised in all cases to the Central Parity Commission, which shall be issued within sixty days of the submission of the problem to its consideration, with the understanding that if it does not, the measure adopted by the subcommission shall be approved.

(Article replaced by Article 3 of the Act No. 14.095 B.O. 29/10/1951)

Public order

Art. 20 - The provisions of this law are of public order and shall be null and void any convention of parties that alter, modify or nullify the rights and obligations set forth therein.

Sanctions

Art. 21 - Offences to the provisions of this law and its statutory decree, which do not deserve a special sanction, shall be punishable by a fine of $ 50 per employee or worker, in case of recidivism, without this fine affecting the right of staff to deduce the relevant judicial actions.

When the employee or worker does not report within 15 working days of the end of the annual term, by the authority of application, which has not been granted the leave, he will suffer the same penalty as the employer. If the same does not comply with the notice set out in article 4°, it shall be punished with a fine equivalent to one month's salary, with a relapse.

(Article replaced by Article 2 of the Act No. 13.263 B.O. 29/09/1948)

Article 22 - In the event of dismissal for reasons other than that enumerated in Article 5, employers shall be liable to a fine of $500 to $5,000 m/n, without prejudice to the payment of compensation provided for in this Act.

In cases where the legitimacy of the waiver was questioned judicially, the application of the preceding sanctions would be effective by the judge, where appropriate, in issuing the ruling that would end the litigation.

(Article replaced by Article 2 of the Act No. 13.263 B.O. 29/09/1948)

Article 23 - The proceeding of fines, which are applied for breach of this law, shall enter a special fund for the construction and maintenance of a polyclinic for the care of staff and members of their families.

Exclusion

Art. 24 - Caregivers of rent houses who are tenants of the same are excluded from the regime of this law and provided that the total amount of the location is not more than $1,000 m/n. a month.

Book of orders

Art. 25 - A book sealed by the implementing authority shall be kept in any income house, in which the orders given by the employer shall be established for the best performance of the tasks of the staff.

Derogation

Art. 26 - Default all provisions that are contrary to the present.

Promulgation

Art. 27 - The executive branch within sixty days of the enactment of this law shall constitute the parity commission and shall regulate it.

Art. 28 - Contact the Executive.

Given in the meeting room of the Argentine Congress, in Buenos Aires, on 18 April, nine hundred and forty-seven.

J.H. QUIJANO	RICARDO C. GUARDO
Alberto H. Reales	L. Zavalla Carbó

Background Regulations: - Article 3, subparagraph (d) replaced by article 2 Act No. 13.263 B.O. 29/09/1948;

- Article 19 replaced by article 2 Act No. 13.263 B.O. 29/09/1948.