Unregistered or Misregistered Work: What You Can Claim Today

The fines under Articles 8, 9, 10 and 15 of Law 24,013 and the whole of Law 25,323 have been repealed since 9 July 2024. If you work or worked off the books in Buenos Aires, you can still claim severance calculated on your real salary, two years of unpaid wage differences, the certificates under Art. 80 of the Labor Contract Law (LCT) and the formal report of the irregularity to ARCA, the Argentine tax authority.

Action Checklist to Get Registered or File a Claim

To protect both your money and your evidence, follow these steps:

• 1. Never resign by telegram: resigning kills your right to severance and weakens any off-the-books claim you might bring later.
• 2. Gather evidence of the relationship and of your real salary: save WhatsApp screenshots with work instructions, company emails, bank transfer receipts for your pay, and photos of time sheets or logbooks.
• 3. Identify witnesses: clients, suppliers or former co-workers who can testify that they saw you doing the job on the premises.
• 4. Demand correct registration through a free labor telegram: it is no longer a formal requirement to «trigger» a repealed fine, but it is still the proof of default and employer bad faith that the labor courts weigh when they read your file.
• 5. Report the irregularity to ARCA (Art. 7 ter, Law 24,013): this is the administrative channel in force today, without the rigid 24-hour deadline the repealed regime imposed.

1. What Changed with the Labor Reform (2024-2026)

Between July 2024 and March 2026, two statutes rewrote the penalty regime for unregistered employment from top to bottom: Law 27,742 (the «Ley Bases», published 8/7/2024) and Law 27,802 (the «Labor Modernisation Law», published 6/3/2026). Neither of them legalised off-the-books work. What they did was scrap the old system of fixed fines payable to the worker and move enforcement to an administrative channel before the tax collector.

Repealed, specifically: Articles 8 to 17 of Law 24,013 (the fines for no registration, a false start date and hidden pay, plus the aggravated damages of Article 15 for a dismissal within two years of the demand), subsection a) of Article 120 of that same law, and the whole of Law 25,323 — both the doubling for an unregistered relationship and the 50% surcharge for late payment. The official source is the text of Law 27,742 on Infoleg, Articles 99 and 100.

In their place, Law 24,013 was left with a new Article 7 (simple, immediate registration), an Article 7 bis (registration is valid whichever party files it) and, above all, an Article 7 ter — in its current wording, substituted by Article 98 of Law 27,802 (published 6/3/2026) — which is now the central mechanism: you report the registration irregularity directly to the Agencia de Recaudación y Control Aduanero (ARCA), the tax authority formerly known as AFIP.

If your employment ended before 9 July 2024, this reform takes nothing away from you: the non-retroactivity principle applies, and your case may still fall under Law 24,013 and Law 25,323 in their previous wording. Check your exact termination date with a lawyer before you rule that route out.

2. What You Can Claim Today if You Work or Worked Off the Books

The classic fines are gone, but unregistered work is still a serious and expensive breach for the employer. This is what can actually be recovered in 2026:

Statutory severance on your real salary (Art. 245 LCT)

Severance pay — one month of salary for each year of service or fraction over three months — is calculated on the best regular and habitual monthly pay you actually received, not on the figure printed on your payslip. If part of your salary was handed to you in cash, you are entitled to have the whole settlement (severance, pay in lieu of notice and the integration of the month of dismissal) computed on the real amount, as long as you can prove it.

Wage differences from the last two years (Art. 256 LCT)

Labor claims lapse two years after each amount falls due. That means you can claim collective agreement increases, overtime, allowances and any other unregistered item from the last 24 months, whether your contract is still running or already terminated.

Employment and contribution certificates (Art. 80 LCT)

Your employer must hand you the employment and contribution certificates within 45 business days of the contract ending (current text under Article 25 of Law 27,802, published 6/3/2026). One point you should know: the previous wording of this article — in force until that reform — also provided compensation of three monthly salaries where the employer failed to comply after a formal demand. That specific penalty is not in the text currently in force of Article 80. If your relationship ended before that date it may still apply to you, so check it point by point with your lawyer before you count on that amount.

Report to ARCA for registration irregularities (Art. 7 ter, Law 24,013)

This is the formal channel in force today to put the tax collector on notice of missing registration, a false start date or hidden pay. If the claim ends in a final court judgment, the court must notify ARCA on its own initiative, within ten business days, with everything the agency needs to assess and collect the unpaid contributions (Art. 7 quáter, Law 24,013).

Indexation and interest on the debt (Art. 276 LCT)

Everything owed to you — severance, wage differences, the statutory annual bonus (SAC) and holiday pay — is restated from the date each amount fell due until it is actually paid, using the change in the Consumer Price Index (IPC) published by INDEC, plus a 3% annual interest rate (Art. 276 LCT, text substituted by Article 54 of Law 27,802). The old regime of penalties for reckless and malicious litigation under Article 275 LCT was repealed outright by Article 207 of that same Law 27,802; today the IPC plus 3% restatement is the only mechanism that compensates the employer's delay in paying.

3. Step by Step: Claiming Unregistered Work in 2026

1. Gather the evidence of the relationship and of your real salary: messages, transfers, witnesses, partial payslips, photos of time sheets.
2. Work out your length of service and your best real monthly pay over the last twelve months, with your lawyer alongside you.
3. Send a formal demand by free labor telegram requiring correct registration, with your true start date and your real salary.
4. File the report with ARCA for the irregularity you detected (Art. 7 ter, Law 24,013).
5. If the company rejects or ignores the demand, assess with your lawyer whether to treat yourself as dismissed (constructive dismissal) and claim the full severance package.
6. Open the mandatory proceeding before SECLO, the pre-trial conciliation service in the City of Buenos Aires, which comes before any court claim.
7. If there is no settlement, sue for the severance, the wage differences, the certificates and the restated interest.

Company Officers' Liability for Unregistered Work

Beyond the repealed fines, failure to register is still treated by the National Labor Court of Appeals (CNAT) as an unlawful act that can trigger the joint liability of the partners, directors and officers of the employing company, under Articles 54, 59 and 274 of the General Companies Law 19,550. Every case turns on its own facts and has to be analysed individually.