What a camp wage and roster can be built with

Wages may be paid in foreign currency. Article 105 of the Employment Contract Law, replaced by art. 34 of the law, reads: «Wages must be satisfied in money, whether in national or foreign currency». Housing for someone who relocates is not wages. The same article removes from remuneration, among other items, «the loan of a dwelling owned by the employer, located in neighbourhoods or complexes adjoining the workplace, or the lease and/or provision of housing, on any basis, where the worker had no roots in the place before the contract was entered into»; and also documented reimbursement of car use per kilometre, travel expenses with receipts, reimbursement of public transport per day actually worked, mobile phone and internet for work purposes, and drawings by partners and directors against profits and profit- or share-sharing schemes. And there is a closed list of benefits that carry no social charges. Article 103 bis (via art. 31) lists seven: canteen and meals inside the workplace or at nearby restaurants contracted by the employer; medical, dental and pharmacy reimbursements and health plans; work clothing and equipment; nursery or crèche for children up to six where the company has no facilities; school supplies and smocks; documented training courses and seminars; and funeral expenses for dependants. On those items «under no circumstances shall social-security contributions be payable». Variable pay can be given and withdrawn. Article 104 bis (via art. 33) allows «dynamic additional, temporary, fixed or variable» pay components to be introduced by collective agreement, by individual agreement or by «unilateral decision of the employer», at whatever frequency is set, «without tacit continuity, ultra-activity or custom being applicable to them, however long they have been in place». Working time can be averaged. Article 198 (via art. 43) allows the maximum working day to be calculated «on an average basis» and an hours bank to be used to offset a long day against a short one, «provided the minimum rest periods of twelve (12) hours between working days and thirty-five (35) hours of weekly rest are respected» and the weekly maximum is not exceeded. Article 197 bis (via art. 42) requires that arrangement to be set down in writing, to record that overtime is voluntary, and to have a control method recording hours worked and hours available to be taken. And holidays can be split: article 154 (via art. 41) allows them to be split by agreement into blocks of no less than seven days, runs the holiday window from 1 October to 30 April with the option of agreeing another, and requires each worker to take summer holidays at least once every three years. Payment remains by bank transfer and free of charge: article 124 (via art. 35) keeps crediting to a payroll account as the only valid method, with no withdrawal limit and no cost to the worker. verif · Mar 6, 2026 ↗

Since 6 March 2026, under article 217 of the law. None of these seven articles sets a date of its own. Three items do remain tied to limits the enforcing authority must set — canteen services contracted outside, profit- and share-sharing, and mobile phone and internet — and those limits are not in the law. verif · Mar 6, 2026 ↗

The project that has to bring people to a place where nobody lives — Añelo, the San Juan cordillera, the Catamarca puna, a mine site at 3,000 metres. That project needs three things that used to be expensive or legally doubtful: housing the worker without the dwelling entering the wage and multiplying social charges, paying part of the package in hard currency, and organising long shifts with compensated rest instead of a fixed daily schedule. All three now have express text. The supplier competing for those people: variable pay that can be granted and withdrawn without becoming permanent is the tool with which a small firm can pay above the collective agreement at the peak of a job without carrying that cost once the job ends. The worker who relocates: housing and travel stop counting as wages, which also means they do not count towards severance or the thirteenth-month payment; in exchange, housing stops being a cost the employer avoids by offering less. And the person already living there: splitting holidays into seven-day blocks is what makes a rotating-shift roster compatible with actually taking time off. verif · Mar 6, 2026 ↗