This is a good question. Many locals just use friends or extended family down as references and then they say they worked for them before. My advice is if someone puts down someone that you talk to and you have doubts they actually worked there, ask for another person at the SAME company to verify they did work there.
I typically didn't get involved with hiring as my HR department did that but I did interview if it was a higher end manager type position. Sometimes if I didn't have a good feeling, I'd just really grill the people they listed as references. A few times my HR department asked the people the exact dates the person worked there and the person on the other phone wouldn't know, which signaled that it was just a friend or something.
I do think it's safer if they have a reference from a larger company or a foreigner with a company.
You can just really see the circumstances of why he/she claim they left their last jobs.
Anyone that has owned a company of any size here in Buenos Aires can tell you that most times when you have to fire an employee (even if the reason is the employee stealing or something they are totally at fault for), you ideally want them to quit so you have no liability for a potential lawsuit.
The employee/employer situation when you fire someone, even when you have cause is HORRIBLE. So it's best to always get them to quit rather than fire them. As an employer, you have the decks stacked against you with the insane labor laws in Argentina.
And definitely do NOT hire them right away in a permanent position. Most industries you can do a "90 day trial period" where you can fire them without penalty so make sure you set up the hire that way where you are putting in a probationary time frame.
Also, although many people hire in "black" I'd not advise that. I've always hired employees in "white" as to help prevent problems later. Because for sure, when they leave if they are black, they can report you and extort you for money. I've seen that with other owners of other companies all the time.
Not to say that working in white will prevent employees from trying bogus lawsuits to collect money (because it won't). But it's important to understand all the potential problems when hiring employees with Argentina's pro-employee labor laws.
