Labor Lawyer Specialized in Domestic Worker Dismissals (Law 26,844)

If you work — or worked — in a private home in Argentina as domestic staff, a caregiver, or a groundskeeper and were dismissed, you're entitled to seniority severance, notice pay, and a prorated 13th-month bonus under Law 26,844, separate from the general Employment Contract Law (LCT). Here's how to claim, how much you're owed, and which mistakes to avoid.

1. What Law 26,844 Is and When It Applies

Law 26,844, passed in 2013, created the Special Employment Contract Regime for Domestic Workers. It covers anyone who performs cleaning, maintenance, cooking, personal assistance, or non-therapeutic care of people inside a private home or family setting — no matter how many hours a week you work or how many employers you have (Arts. 1 and 2).

The law recognizes three working arrangements: live-in (you reside in the home where you work), live-out for a single employer, and live-out for multiple different employers. All three carry the same protection against dismissal; what changes are a few additional rights, such as nightly rest for live-in staff.

You fall outside this regime if you work for a legal entity (a cleaning company, for instance, even if it sends you to clean private homes), if you're a close relative of your employer, if your caregiving role requires a professional license — a nurse hired for therapeutic care doesn't count as "domestic staff" — if you're hired only to drive the family's car, or if you work for a condominium association, a country club, or a gated community: in those cases your contract is governed by the general LCT (Art. 3).

2. How to Claim: Notice Letter, Deadlines, and Which Tribunal

If you were dismissed — verbally, over WhatsApp, or with no explanation at all — the first step is the same as in any dismissal: don't sign anything on the spot, and gather what you have (pay records, message screenshots, the name of a witness if you were paid without a receipt).

• 1. Send a free labor telegram (Law 23,789) through Correo Argentino, formally demanding that your employer clarify your employment status and pay what you're owed. You don't need a lawyer to send it, but it's worth having someone review the wording first.
• 2. You go through a mandatory conciliation stage before filing suit. Unlike the general regime's SECLO, here the conciliator answers to Law 26,844's enforcement authority and has 10 business days from the hearing to broker an agreement (Art. 53).
• 3. If there's no agreement, the claim is filed with the tribunal that has jurisdiction over where you worked. In the City of Buenos Aires, that's the Domestic Workers Labor Tribunal (Art. 51). In Buenos Aires Province, it's the provincial labor courts, which hear these cases in practice even though their organic statute doesn't name domestic work specifically.
• 4. The proceeding is oral and you need an attorney of record (Art. 54); the preliminary administrative stage — including conciliation — is free for you, with no filing fees (Art. 61).
• 5. If the tribunal finds that you weren't registered, or were registered improperly, it must forward the file to ARCA (formerly AFIP) on its own initiative so the agency can assess and collect the unpaid contributions (Art. 58). You don't have to start that process yourself.
• 6. You have 2 years from the dismissal to file a claim (Art. 69); after that, the claim is time-barred.

3. How Much You're Owed: Calculating the Severance

The logic mirrors the general regime, with its own numbers:

Seniority severance (Art. 48): one month of your best normal, regular monthly pay from the last year, for each year worked or fraction longer than 3 months. The legal minimum is one full month, even if you worked less than a year.

Notice pay (Arts. 42–44): with less than 1 year of seniority, your employer owes 10 days' notice (or pay in lieu if none was given); with more than 1 year, it's 30 days. If you're dismissed without that notice on a date that isn't the last day of the month, you're also owed the remaining days of that month (integration of the month of dismissal).

Prorated 13th-month bonus / SAC (Arts. 26–28): half of your best salary for the current semester, prorated for the months worked since January or July.

Unused vacation pay, prorated (Arts. 29–30): the scale depends on seniority — 14 consecutive days up to 5 years, 21 days between 5 and 10 years, 28 days between 10 and 20 years, 35 days beyond 20 years — prorated for the time worked in the current year.

If you worked live-in, one practical detail: you have 5 days from the dismissal to vacate your room (Art. 47), even if your employer hasn't paid you anything yet.

Two special situations change the amount. If your employer died, you're entitled to 50% of the Article 48 severance; but if you keep working for the family for more than 30 consecutive days, the law treats your employment as continuing without interruption, with the same seniority, and there's no severance to collect at that point (Art. 46(e)). If instead you were dismissed for being pregnant or for getting married, on top of everything above you're owed an aggravated indemnity equal to one year's pay (Arts. 40–41).

4. Common Mistakes: What NOT to Do If You're Dismissed

• Don't sign a resignation letter in exchange for "something": resigning forfeits your seniority severance and notice pay. If your employer offers cash in exchange for a resignation letter, the outcome is almost always worse than pursuing a formal claim.
• Don't let the two-year deadline pass: after two years from the dismissal, your claim is time-barred and you can no longer collect anything (Art. 69).
• Don't confuse this process with the general regime's SECLO: domestic workers have their own conciliator and their own tribunal — it isn't the same track as an office dismissal.
• If you worked live-in, don't stay in the residence more than 5 days: the Article 47 deadline runs regardless of whether your employer has settled anything with you; document the condition you leave it in.
• Don't accept that "a few hours a week means no rights": the law sets no minimum number of hours or days worked per week (Art. 1). Working twice a week still generates severance rights.
• Don't repeat figures from the internet without checking them: plenty of pages still describe a "double severance" under Article 48 that actually belonged to the now-repealed Article 50. Ask to see the rule as it currently stands before you sign anything.

Frequently Asked Questions