Force Majeure Dismissal or Lack of Work (50% Severance Reduction)

If your employer dismissed you under Article 247 of the LCT (Force Majeure or lack of work) paying only 50% of your seniority severance pay, you must know that in the vast majority of cases, this is illegal and arbitrary. A drop in sales, an economic crisis, or poor business decisions are part of the business risk ("riesgo empresario"), which cannot be transferred to the employee. You have the full right to reject the cause and legally demand the complete 100% payment of the severance under Article 245 LCT.

Immediate Checklist (First 48 Hours)

If the company notifies you of the dismissal with a 50% reduced final settlement, do not waste time and proceed as follows:

• 1. Do not sign pre-printed receipts or blank agreements: Any document expressing your agreement with the force majeure cause will make it harder to claim the owed difference.
• 2. Reject the cause by telegram within 48 business hours: It is vital to send a free labor telegram (telegrama laboral gratuito) formally rejecting the invoked lack of work or force majeure.
• 3. Demand payment of notice period, vacations, and bonus: These items do not allow any reduction and must be paid at 100%, even in force majeure dismissals.
• 4. Seek urgent legal advice: A labor lawyer will know how to draft the precise intimation demanding the remaining amounts of Art. 245 LCT under penalty of law.

1. The Business Risk and the Article 247 Fraud

Article 247 of the Employment Contract Law (Ley de Contrato de Trabajo, LCT) states that when a dismissal is due to force majeure or a reduction of work not attributable to the employer, the employee will receive half of the standard severance pay (indemnización por antigüedad) stipulated in Art. 245 LCT.

However, companies systematically use this article to disguise their commercial inefficiency or evade the correct payment upon terminating the employment relationship. Argentina's cyclical economic crises, a decrease in sales, the loss of a major client, or the increased cost of supplies constitute the so-called business risk. Just as the employee does not share in the superlative profits when the business prospers, they do not have to subsidize the losses with their severance when the company does poorly.

2. Strict Requirements for the Cause to be Legal

For the Labor Courts to endorse the dismissal paying only half the severance, the company is obligated to prove the existence of extremely rigorous conditions, which in practice is almost impossible:

• Unforeseeable and Unavoidable Event: It must be an extraordinary event outside the course of business (e.g., a natural disaster that destroyed the facilities) that could not be foreseen or avoided. Market variations do not fit here.
• Employer's Non-Imputability: The employer must prove they acted as a "good businessman" and that the situation does not derive from their own negligence, commercial incompetence, or financial speculation.
• Crisis Procedure: Initiating the Crisis Preventive Procedure (PPC) at the Ministry of Labor prior to executing the dismissals.

3. Items That Must Be Paid at 100%

Even in the hypothetical case that the force majeure dismissal is lawful, it is essential to understand that the 50% reduction applies solely and exclusively to the seniority severance pay (Art. 245 LCT). The rest of the final settlement must be paid in full:

• Salary for the current month and days worked.
• Substitute notice period severance (1 or 2 salaries depending on your seniority).
• Integration of the dismissal month.
• Proportional unused vacations.
• Proportional Annual Complementary Salary (SAC / aguinaldo).

If your employer cut your bonus or notice period, your settlement is fundamentally flawed and subject to a claim through mandatory conciliation (SECLO).