Truck Driver and Transport Worker Labor Lawyer (CCT 40/89)

If you drive a truck, make deliveries, or work in a warehouse under CCT 40/89 — the collective bargaining agreement for the trucking industry — you can claim the per diem pay your employer treats as if it were not wages, the hours you spend waiting to load and unload, overtime at 50% and 100%, unused days off, and severance calculated on what you actually earn, not the base pay on your payslip.

1. CCT 40/89 and What Has to Be on Your Payslip

The agreement governing the industry is Collective Bargaining Agreement No. 40/89 (CCT 40/89). On the union side it is negotiated by the truckers' federation, the Federación Nacional de Trabajadores Camioneros y Obreros del Transporte Automotor de Cargas, Logística y Servicios. On the employer side, FADEEAC, FAETyL and CATAC sign it. Those same parties set the average wage figure used to calculate the severance cap under Article 245 of the Employment Contract Law (LCT), Argentina's central labor statute, which the labor authority then registers and publishes.

What matters is not the agreement's number: it is that your payslip almost never stops at the base wage. Between the union base salary and what actually lands in your pocket, there is a layer of add-ons — seniority, time away from your usual residence, meals, overnight stays, mileage, loading and unloading, waiting hours — and how much your severance is worth depends on that layer.

Per Diem Pay: Where the Most Money Gets Lost

Article 106 of the LCT is clear: per diem payments count as wages, except for the portion actually spent and backed by receipts, and except for what professional statutes and collective agreements provide. That last clause opens the industry's most expensive argument.

In practice there are two very different scenarios. One: the company reimburses what you actually spent, and you turn in the receipt for the truck stop, the hotel, or the fuel. That is an expense reimbursement, not wages. Two: you get paid a fixed amount every month called "per diem," the same in January as in July, whether you traveled or not, with no one asking for a receipt. That does not look like an expense — it looks like a salary under another name. And if it is wages, it counts toward your social security contributions, your annual bonus, your vacation pay, the value of your overtime hour, and the base of your severance.

How This Affects the Base Under Article 245 of the LCT

Since Ley 27.802 (published 3/6/2026), severance for length of service is calculated on the best monthly, normal and regular wage earned in the last year, with new rules that significantly change the outcome in trucking:

• Excluded: the annual bonus, vacation pay, and any bonus not paid monthly.
• Regular means a concept you earned in at least six months of the last calendar year: the add-on you almost always collect counts; the one you got paid twice does not.
• Normal, for variable items — overtime, commissions, monthly bonuses — means the average of the last six months, or of the full year if that favors you.

Translated into the job: if you drive long haul and your mileage and overtime vary month to month, the best single payslip of the year is no longer enough — the average has to be rebuilt item by item. On top of that, the base cannot exceed three times the average union wage, nor fall below 67% of your best normal, regular wage: the floor set by the Vizzoti ruling is now written into the statute. See the union severance cap.

2. The Claims We See Most in Freight Transport

Unpaid Overtime and Waiting Time

The legal workday is 8 hours a day or 48 a week (Ley 11.544), and the LCT defines it as all the time you are at your employer's disposal, including downtime inherent to the job. Anything beyond that gets a 50% premium, and 100% on Saturdays after 1:00 p.m., Sundays and holidays. In trucking the conflict is always the same: the company deducts waiting time, and that deduction has no legal support.

One thing worth knowing: Ley 27.802 repealed Article 6 of Ley 11.544, which required posting work-hour notices and keeping a record of overtime. That is why the trip documentation you keep in your own hands matters more today. See how the 50% and 100% overtime premiums are calculated and the claim process.

Days Off, Rest Periods and the "Hours Bank"

You are entitled to 12 hours of rest between one workday and the next (Article 197 LCT), and the averaging systems under the reformed Article 198 still have to respect 35 weekly hours of rest. The hours bank under Article 197 bis is not a license to skip overtime pay: it requires a written, voluntary agreement, clear limits, and a reliable way of tracking hours worked.

Union Classification and Category Differences

Many logistics companies register their staff outside the trucking agreement, or under scales that do not match the actual work. If you drive, load and deliver, your classification is decided by what you actually do, and the differences can be claimed for the past two years. If you were demoted, add a job category claim.

Off-the-Books Mileage and Waiting Pay

It is common for the base wage to go through the payslip while mileage, overnight pay, or a "bonus" gets paid in an envelope. That is unregistered wages, and it hits your contributions, your workers' comp coverage, and your severance. See how to claim off-the-books pay and what you can claim today.

Occupational Accidents and Illnesses

Whole-body vibration, a fixed posture, handling loads, and engine noise wear a driver's body down in a predictable way. The most common conditions are herniated discs and noise-induced hearing loss. If your workers' compensation insurer (ART) denies the claim or discharges you without a disability rating, there are avenues to claim.

3. Step by Step If Your Pay Is Wrong

1. Gather two years of payslips. That is the period you can claim for (Article 256 LCT).
2. Build your trip file. Trip logs, delivery receipts with times, toll and scale tickets, tachograph data, GPS screenshots, and traffic messages: photograph everything before you hand it in.
3. Keep your own log. A notebook with the date, time, destination, and waiting time is worth far more than it seems once you have to testify in a lawsuit.
4. Send a certified demand. The free labor telegram (Ley 23.789) costs nothing. If your employer stays silent after a certified demand, for a period never shorter than two business days, that silence counts as a presumption against them (Article 57 LCT).
5. Do not stop showing up for work. Walking off the job without first sending a demand exposes you to being fired for abandonment and flips the claim against you.
6. Go through SECLO. In the City of Buenos Aires, mandatory conciliation is the step before a lawsuit, and it often closes the case.
7. If it goes to trial, request an accounting expert. The company's books and trip logs are the central evidence; failing to produce them works in your favor.

4. Mistakes That Cost Drivers Money