Public Holidays deducted as workdays??

[syngirl]

My boyfriend and I are hoping to get home to Canada for Christmas this year, as it's only every couple of years that everyone in the family actually is there. So we were thinking to go from about the 20 Dec return 2 Jan. I thought this was great as it would mean that he would only miss 6 workdays and we could potentially take another holiday in 2008 with his days that remained.
However, his HR person at his company claims that it is the law in Argentina that if you take holiday around public holiday days those days are deducted from your holiday for the year. In other words, the 24,25,31,1 would be counted as missed workdays. Is this total BS or what?? The HR person did not show him the law that said this, and I told him he had better look in his contract to see exactly what it says.
Does anyone (especially Ernie, as he seems to know his laws here) know if this is correct? The craziest thing to me is that if he were sick around Christmas those 4 days would not be considered missed workdays.

 

[syngirl]

sorry I should edit myself -- I've just looked it up, the 24 and 31 are not public holidays -- is that correct? So it would just be the 25 and the 1st that are public? please correct me on this if I am wrong. thanks

 

[Ernie]

Hello Syngirl,I am afraid that that nasty HR person is right. Please find the full text of the law here:Ley de Contrato de TrabajoThis law was passed on May 13, 1976. It was modified in various parts,
but mainly in matters pertaining to severance pay and so on.Only Christmas and New Year's Day are public holidays. As you mentioned, Dec. 24th and 31st, are not. However, most companies work only until midday on those days. With regards to your question, applicable articles, to my understanding, are 151 and 154. Public holidays are set on a yearly basis by the Ministerio de Trabajo.
It is the employer's prerogative to determine when you can go on holidays, provided he does so between October 1 and April 30th. You can call the Ministerio de Trabajo's free help line at 0800-666-4100.
My experience with record companies is: Sony BMG, Warner and Universal Music close down for two weeks around those holidays, while EMI does not (they're English, remember?). However, if you have a good work relationship with your employer, you shouldn't have a problem arranging this. Nobody really works on the 24th or 31st anyway. And if you did, no one else does, so you can't really get anything done. Sad, but true.I hope this helps.CheersErnie

 

[syngirl]

thanks for replying -- i'm not entirely clear though -- my boyfriend gets 14 days of holiday per year. The HR person is trying to say that even though the 25 and 1 are public holidays, she is going to deduct them as 2 days from his 14? Is that correct? She is essentially saying that he should be working those days, even though if he were in BA he would not have to. That's why it doesn't make sense to me...

 

[Ernie]

Hello Syngirl,Since I didn't know the answer to your last question, I took the liberty of calling the Ministerio de Trabajo's help line. This is the result: Under our law, holidays must start on a Monday, but cannot begin on a public holiday, which means that if your boyfriend plans to leave on Dec. 24th (Monday), his 14 days will be counted as from that day, because the 24th is not a public holiday. Unfortunately, since the 25th and 1st fall in the middle of the 14 consecutive days, he should return to the office on Monday, January 7th, 2008.Does this help?
Cheers
Ernie

 

[syngirl]

Thanks Ernie, it helps, although I still think it's silly

 

[Ernie]

Hey syngirl!It's not only silly, it's ludicrous, but that's the way the cookie crumbles, I'm afraid...Argentina isn't easy.LoveErnie