Private Security Guard Labor Lawyer (CCT 507/07)
If you work as a security guard, a monitoring operator, an event access controller, or an admission-control worker, CCT 507/07, negotiated by UPSRA and CAESI, applies to you. You can claim the hours that exceed the twelve-on-twelve-off scheme, unpaid days off and holidays, the site premium that disappeared before your dismissal, and per diem pay that shrank your severance.
Are your hours calculated wrong, or were you fired from your security company?
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1. CCT 507/07 and What Has to Be on Your Payslip
The agreement governing the industry is CCT 507/07, entered into on June 28, 2007, between the Unión Personal de Seguridad de la República Argentina (UPSRA) and the Cámara Argentina de Empresas de Seguridad e Investigación (CAESI), and ratified by Resolution 732/2007 of the Labor Ministry. It recognizes CCT 15/75, 194/92 and 421/05 as prior agreements, and Article 2 sets its scope: it applies to security guards throughout Argentina, except in the Province of Córdoba. It is mandatory for every employer in the industry, whether or not they belong to CAESI.
Article 4 covers non-managerial security personnel in the commercial, industrial, civil, financial and agricultural sectors, whether armed or not, and includes administrative staff of security companies, physical and electronic protection, mobile escort services, and admission-control staff at stadiums, clubs, nightclubs, bars and venues. The job categories in Article 15 are mutually exclusive: general guard, fire-watch guard, administrative staff, senior guard, event verifier, monitoring operator, electronic-security installer, and admission-control worker.
CCT 507/07's specific pay items are few and very concrete, which makes them easy to spot on a payslip:
- Seniority (Article 24): a bonus of 1% per year, calculated on your category's union base wage.
- Site premium (Article 25): the company can set it to pay differently depending on where you work, and the agreement clarifies that it stops automatically once you leave that site.
- Unfavorable zone (Article 30): a 20% monthly premium on the union wage, but only in Chubut, Santa Cruz, Tierra del Fuego and the South Atlantic Islands. If a payslip from Buenos Aires shows "unfavorable zone," something else is being disguised.
- Agreed-upon per diem (Article 33): paid monthly, with no receipts required, declared non-wage under Article 106 of the LCT, with an obligation to identify it separately on your payslip with its own code.
- Meal-voucher benefit (Article 33): per day actually worked, under Article 103 bis of the LCT.
- Security Guard Day (Article 26): April 25. If you work, you get paid double, or you get a compensatory day off, or a day is added to your vacation.
The technical detail that decides almost every payslip dispute is in Article 33: the daily wage is your monthly salary divided by 25, and the hourly wage is your monthly salary divided by 200, and your weekly day off is already built into those figures. That divisor of 200 is what has to be used to value every hour of overtime; when the company uses a higher divisor, each hour is worth less, and the gap multiplies over the years.
Four Distinctions That Define Your Classification
- Security is not cash transport: the cash transport branch has its own agreement, CCT 453/06, between UPSRA and the Cámara de Empresas Argentinas Transportadoras de Caudales, with a different pay scale and severance cap.
- The client's agreement doesn't cover you: Article 7 expressly excludes any other agreement tied to the activity of the third party where you provide services. Working security at a bank doesn't make you a bank employee.
- Córdoba is excluded: CCT 507/07's territorial scope excludes that province, which has its own bargaining structure.
- Discontinuous work: anyone doing goods-in-transit security, screening, or event work is paid for hours actually worked, with a four-hour minimum guarantee per shift once called in and put to work (Article 23). It's an indefinite-term contract for discontinuous service, not a temporary contract.
2. Twelve-Hour Shifts, Days Off and Overtime
This is the heart of the conflict in private security, and it has to be read carefully because the agreement says something that gets quoted out of context all the time.
Article 9 sets the ordinary workday at eight hours a day or forty-eight a week, with a weekly day off. And it adds: where a guard works up to twelve hours a day with their consent, without exceeding forty-eight hours a week, even on Saturdays and Sundays, and always with twelve hours of rest between one shift and the next, no overtime is owed. There are three cumulative conditions: your consent, the forty-eight-hour weekly cap, and actual twelve-hour rest between shifts. Industry practice breaks one of the three almost every time: the weekend double shift that pushes you to fifty-six hours, the relief guard who never shows up and leaves you at your post for fourteen hours, the day off that gets pushed back and leaves you with only eight hours of rest.
And there's a limit that gets ignored systematically. When it ratified the agreement, the Labor Ministry expressly flagged Articles 9 and 14 and put on record that compensatory days off cannot affect the payment of overtime owed. On Article 21 it made the same warning about holidays: compensatory rest cannot stand in the way of paying for worked holidays. "I'll make it up with a day off" is not a blank check, and that ministerial observation is part of the ratification act itself.
Article 12 regulates the premium for a missed relief: exceptionally, you can be held over for one additional shift, capped at eight hours, and the company cannot exercise that option more than four times a month, nor when you disclosed other work commitments at the time you were hired. Counting the month's holdovers is usually the first number that reveals the irregularity.
On days off, Article 11 allows the weekly rest day to be fixed or rotating. Rotating is legal; making the day off disappear is not. Hours beyond the agreement's limits are paid with the 50% and 100% legal premiums, valued with the divisor of 200. If the company does not produce its service logs or scheduling books, that omission works in favor of the workday you allege (Articles 52 and 55 LCT): site incident logs, relief sign-offs, and daily reports are all evidence.
3. The Claims We See Most in Security Companies
Overtime and days off absorbed into nothing. The typical claim isn't "they never paid my overtime" but "they made up for it with days off that were never given, or that were given but the holiday still should have been paid." It gets rebuilt with schedules, incident logs and site witnesses.
The site premium that vanishes. This is the industry's most costly maneuver. You collected the premium for the bank branch or the mall for years; three months before your dismissal you're sent to a site with no premium, and your severance is calculated without it. Under Article 245 of the LCT as reformed by Article 51 of Ley 27.802, published 3/6/2026, the base is your best monthly, normal and regular wage, and an item is regular if it was earned in at least six months of the last calendar year. The exact date of the site transfer becomes, literally, money.
Per diem pay that shrinks everything. When the non-wage per diem under Article 33 grows to represent a substantial share of what you collect, it stops compensating expenses and starts functioning as disguised wages. That reduces your annual bonus, vacation pay, the value of your overtime hour, and your severance base, and it is a discussion you raise with your payslip in hand.
The professional license used as an exit door. Article 8 requires the company to process your license within thirty calendar days of your hire, and it provides that if the license is not granted by the competent authority, the employer only owes wages for the period actually worked. It also allows dismissal of anyone who loses the qualifications required for licensing, under the second paragraph of Article 254 of the LCT. That's a legitimate clause used abusively when the license wasn't processed on time because of the company's own delay, or when the loss of the license isn't actually proven.
Transfers beyond the allowed radius. Article 13 limits transfers to thirty kilometers from your home and requires written or telegraphic notice. Being sent to cover a site sixty kilometers away, with two hours of travel each way, is an abusive exercise of the employer's power to change working conditions.
Robberies and the wear of the job. A security guard is one of the few workers whose occupational risk is being held at gunpoint. Post-traumatic stress following an armed robbery at your post is a covered contingency under Ley 24.557 and is reported the same way as a fracture. On top of that come varicose veins and other conditions from standing for twelve hours in a guard booth. Disability is assessed using the schedule in Annex I of Decreto 659/96, now replaced by Decreto 549/2025, and any dispute goes to the medical board as the required first step (Ley 27.348).
Site conditions. Article 29 requires guard booths or shelters where the post is exposed to the elements, and it requires public-street posts to have adequate lighting, shelter, chemical toilets, and identification of the service provider. Article 28 puts a first-aid kit on the employer's tab. These are concrete, verifiable and reportable breaches.
4. Step by Step, in Order
Gather your paperwork. Payslips from the last twenty-four months, service schedules or site incident logs, your credential, proof of your license, and any message assigning you a shift or a holdover.
Rebuild your actual workday. Shift by shift and month by month: hours actually worked, rest between shifts, days off granted, and worked holidays. Then compare it against what was paid, valuing each hour with the divisor of 200.
Send a written demand. The free labor telegram is available to employees at no cost (Ley 23.789). Spell out the item, the period, and the approximate amount, and set a deadline. A generic demand won't support a constructive dismissal later.
SECLO. In the City of Buenos Aires, mandatory conciliation under Ley 24.635 comes before the lawsuit: it's free, a conciliator is assigned at random, the hearing is scheduled within ten days of the appointment, and starting the process suspends the statute of limitations for six months.
Lawsuit. Before the National Labor Courts. Amounts owed are updated under Article 276 of the LCT as amended by Article 54 of Ley 27.802: variation of the Consumer Price Index plus 3% annual interest. And seniority is counted by full year or any fraction longer than three months.
5. Mistakes That Cost You Money
Signing the Article 9 consent without reading it. That consent is only one of three requirements, not a waiver of overtime pay: it doesn't authorize exceeding forty-eight hours a week or eating into your twelve hours of rest.
Not tracking your holdovers. Article 12 caps them at four a month. Almost no one counts them, and they're the cleanest evidence of the violation: write them down in your phone the same day.
Accepting a site change without documenting it. If the transfer costs you the site premium, that piece of paper is worth months of severance.
Returning the uniform without a receipt. The agreement allows the company to deduct its value from your pay if you don't return it. Always return it against a written receipt: improper deductions can be challenged.
Not reporting a robbery to the ART. Many guards go through an armed robbery, stay on the job, and only months later develop insomnia and anxiety attacks. Without a timely report, the claim becomes harder to prove.
Letting deadlines run out. Labor credits prescribe after two years (Article 256 LCT): every month that passes, you lose the oldest month of your overtime claim.
6. Frequently Asked Questions About Working in Private Security
What collective bargaining agreement applies to me as a security guard?
CCT 507/07, entered into by the Unión Personal de Seguridad de la República Argentina (UPSRA) and the Cámara Argentina de Empresas de Seguridad e Investigación (CAESI), ratified by Resolution 732/2007 of the Labor Ministry. It recognizes CCT 15/75, 194/92 and 421/05 as prior agreements, and it applies nationwide except in the Province of Córdoba.
I work security at a bank. Does the banking industry agreement apply to me?
No. Article 7 of CCT 507/07 sets out the principle of professional specificity: the security industry agreement applies to the exclusion of any other agreement tied to the activity of the third party where you provide services. Whether you are at a bank, a mall, or a hospital, you are paid on the security industry scale.
I work twelve-hour shifts. Do I have to be paid overtime?
Article 9 says that if you work up to twelve hours a day with your consent, without exceeding forty-eight hours a week, even on Saturdays and Sundays, and always with twelve hours of rest between shifts, no overtime is owed. The three requirements are cumulative. If even one is missing, the excess is overtime.
My employer gives me a compensatory day off instead of paying overtime. Can it do that?
With an important limit. When it ratified the agreement, the Labor Ministry flagged Articles 9 and 14 and warned that compensatory days off cannot affect the payment of overtime owed. On Article 21 it made the same point about holidays: compensatory rest cannot stand in the way of paying for worked holidays.
What divisor is used to calculate my hourly rate?
Article 33 sets the industry's divisors: the daily wage is your monthly salary divided by 25, and the hourly wage is your monthly salary divided by 200. Your weekly day off is already built into those figures. Many payslips use higher divisors, and that is where the difference shows up.
I used to receive a site premium and it was cut when I was moved to a different post.
Article 25 lets the company set site premiums and it clarifies that the payment stops once you stop working at that location. The problem shows up at dismissal: the reformed Article 245 of the LCT treats an item as regular if it was earned in at least six months of the last year, so the date of the transfer becomes a central economic fact.
Does the per diem pay on my payslip count toward my severance?
Article 33 creates an agreed-upon per diem, paid monthly, with no need to submit receipts, and declared non-wage under the exception in Article 106 of the LCT, with the obligation to identify it separately on your payslip. When its size distorts your base wage, its true wage character, and its effect on your annual bonus, vacation pay, overtime, and severance, can be challenged in court.
I was transferred to a site very far from my home.
Article 13 allows a transfer only within a radius of thirty kilometers from your home, and it requires written or telegraphic notice. In addition, if you are moved from one site to another during your shift, your employer has to pay for the trip and count that time as worked.
I transport cash. Is it the same agreement?
No. The cash transport branch has its own agreement, CCT 453/06, between UPSRA and the Cámara de Empresas Argentinas Transportadoras de Caudales, with its own pay scale and severance cap. Paying an armored-vehicle crew member on the CCT 507/07 scale generates a claimable difference.
I was robbed at my post and it left me shaken. Is that a workplace accident?
Yes. A robbery suffered on the job, at your workplace, is a workplace accident covered by Ley 24.557, and any psychological harm it leaves is reported the same way as a physical injury. If the ART rejects the claim or discharges you without a disability rating, you can challenge that before the jurisdictional medical board.
My employer deducts the uniform from my payslip.
Article 20 is clear: your uniform is provided by your employer, entirely at its expense, and it stays at the workplace. The agreement sets the minimum kit: two shirts and two pairs of pants a year, a winter coat every three years, two ties a year, a rain cape per post, and rubber boots for rain. A bulletproof vest, when the job requires one, is also the employer's responsibility.
What happens on April 25?
It is Security Guard Day under Article 26. If you work that day, your employer can pay you double your usual wage, give you a compensatory day off, or add a day to your annual vacation. What it cannot do is ignore it.