Labor Lawyer in Microcentro and Downtown Buenos Aires: Where Your Claim Is Filed

If you work — or were dismissed — in Microcentro (San Nicolás, Monserrat, the Florida–Lavalle axis, the banking City), your labor claim does not start in a courtroom. It starts at SECLO, the mandatory pre-trial conciliation created by Law 24.635. Only if no agreement is reached do you sue before the National Labor Courts, which run under the procedure of Law 18.345.

Your claim goes to the National Labor Courts: what that means

Microcentro lies inside the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires. That is why your individual labor dispute is decided in the national labor jurisdiction, under the procedure of Law 18.345 (consolidated text, Decree 106/98): eighty first-instance courts and a Court of Appeals sitting in ten chambers of three judges each (sec. 4).

There is something no other neighborhood offers: you litigate inside your own work area. The court buildings — Lavalle 1554, Lavalle 1268, Diagonal Norte 760 — and the SECLO head office at Adolfo Alsina 665 sit in Microcentro or a few blocks away. The court that decides your dismissal is closer to your office than to your home.

Two rules are worth knowing from the start:

• Jurisdiction cannot be waived, including territorial jurisdiction (sec. 19). If your contract says disputes go to another jurisdiction, that clause is void.
• Claims against the National State no longer belong here. Law 27.802 (Official Gazette, 6 March 2026) replaced sec. 20 and moved to the Federal Administrative Litigation courts every case where the National State — or the entities listed in sec. 8(a) of Law 24.156 — is a party or an interested third party. Downtown that matters: many offices in the area are national public agencies.

SECLO: the mandatory step before any lawsuit

In CABA you cannot sue without going through the Mandatory Labor Conciliation Service. Section 1 of Law 24.635 is blunt: claims falling within the national labor jurisdiction must be settled, on a mandatory basis and before any lawsuit, at that agency. The real timeline:

1. You file the claim (sec. 7). This suspends the limitation period for the term of sec. 257 LCT: six months.
2. A conciliator is drawn (sec. 8) from those registered with the National Registry.
3. First hearing within ten days (sec. 16), counted from the conciliator's appointment, not from your filing.
4. You attend with a lawyer, always (sec. 17). The contingency fee agreement cannot exceed 10% of the settled amount.
5. The conciliator has twenty business days (sec. 18) from the hearing, extendable by up to fifteen more if both parties ask. Once the term expires with no agreement, a certificate is issued and the court route opens.
6. If the company does not show up, it pays (sec. 19): a fine equal to 100% of the conciliator's fee for each unjustified absence.
7. The agreement is approved (secs. 22 and 23) if it represents a fair composition of rights under sec. 15 LCT. If the company later breaches it, it is enforced before the labor courts with a fine in your favor of up to 30% of the settled amount (sec. 26).

For you the procedure is free of charge (sec. 3). Excluded from it are injunctions and interim relief, pre-trial evidence, claims against insolvent or bankrupt employers, and claims against the national, provincial or municipal State (sec. 2): those go straight to court. We cover this in when you can sue without going through SECLO.

Working in Microcentro is not the same as living in Microcentro

This is where most people get it wrong. Your home address decides nothing. Section 24 of Law 18.345 — as replaced by sec. 80 of Law 27.802 — gives three options, and the claimant chooses: the judge of the place of work, of the place where the contract was made, or of the employer's domicile. One of the three being in CABA is enough. Where you live is not on the list.

The reform introduced a subtle but decisive change: where sec. 24 used to say "domicile of the defendant", it now says "domicile of the employer". Before, it was enough for any co-defendant — a workers' compensation insurer, for instance — to be based in CABA. Not any more. If your case involves jointly liable co-defendants, labor intermediation or a corporate group, this can move your file to a different jurisdiction.

SECLO uses parallel criteria: it takes your case if the employer's registered domicile is in CABA, if the contract was made in CABA, or if the work was performed in CABA. Here too your home address is irrelevant. And one detail from sec. 68: the complaint is served with a ten-day term to answer, but if the defendant is domiciled outside the City, that term is extended by one day for every hundred kilometres.

Step by step if you work downtown

1. Gather the evidence before you move: pay slips, building access badge, clock-in records, emails, witnesses from the same office. All of it must be offered with the complaint (sec. 65).
2. Send the labor telegram. It is free under Law 23.789. The wording decides the case: see how to send it and, if you were already dismissed, urgent dismissal telegram.
3. File at SECLO through the online portal, with counsel.
4. Go to the hearing with a figure: use our guide to calculate your severance and read how the hearing works.
5. Approved settlement or closing certificate: the settlement becomes res judicata; the certificate lets you sue.
6. Complaint and court draw, filed with proof that the conciliation stage was exhausted.
7. Keep it moving: six months of inactivity at first instance kills the case.

What people claim in Microcentro: local industries and collective agreements

San Nicolás and Monserrat concentrate the City's financial, retail and administrative activity. That produces a recognisable claim profile and a short list of collective agreements that keep coming up:

• Banks and financial institutions — CCT 18/75: job-grade differences, unpaid contractual supplements, overtime.
• Retail — CCT 130/75: shops along Florida and Lavalle, with the wrong agreement applied and unrecorded working hours.
• Restaurants and hotels — UTHGRA scope: split shifts and tips kept off the pay slip.
• Private security — UPSRA scope: guards in corporate buildings, with rest days not granted.
• Call centres and telemarketers — disputed classification and commissions paid as non-wage items.

Two patterns weigh more here than in residential neighborhoods: partial registration — a low declared salary and the rest in cash — and forced self-employed (monotributo) status for people who are in fact employees. Both are proven with the same raw material: building access logs, emails and witnesses.

Common mistakes made by claimants from Microcentro

• Thinking SECLO is "the lawsuit". If you sign a low settlement there and it is approved, it becomes res judicata and there is no lawsuit afterwards.
• Attending the hearing without your own lawyer. Section 17 requires counsel and the company always brings its own. See representation at SECLO hearings.
• Letting the two years run out. SECLO suspends the limitation period for six months only. Review suspension and interruption.
• Taking a workplace accident to SECLO: inadmissible since 2017, it goes to the medical board.
• Suing where you live. Without place of work, contract or employer's domicile in CABA, the claim is dismissed for lack of jurisdiction.
• Filing without all the evidence and letting the file sleep: the two new mistakes created by Law 27.802.