ADR-021 — Argentine Legal Context and Hours Computation

ADR-021 — Argentine Legal Context and Hours Computation

Status

Accepted

Context

Coveris computes weekly hours for employees in Argentine private clinics. Three legal instruments define the constraints:

1. LCT 20.744, Art. 196–201 — national framework for maximum working hours. Sets the standard weekly cap (48h), insalubrious cap (36h), and hard ceiling including overtime (60h).
2. Ley 9539 — provincial statute for healthcare workers. Establishes sector-specific conditions that inform CONTRACT tags (Jornada Insalubre 36h, Guardia 24h; see [[adr-019-tag-based-requirements|ADR-019]]). Does not override LCT 20.744; specifies within it.
3. Circular 4 — regulatory circular governing lactation leave reductions. The EXCEPTION tag Lactancia (−4h/week) is its direct expression. Applies uniformly and is not negotiable.

Multiple system rules reference this legal frame. A single canonical location prevents duplication across seed data, code comments, and other ADRs.

Decision

This ADR is the single canonical location for Argentine legal context in hours computation. Code comments and seed data may reference it but must not duplicate the legal rationale.

Operative system constants:

Constant	Value	Source
Standard weekly cap (Jornada Completa)	48h	LCT 20.744 Art. 197
Insalubrious cap (Jornada Insalubre)	36h	LCT 20.744 Art. 200
Hard weekly ceiling (MAX_WEEKLY_HOURS)	60h	LCT 20.744 Art. 201
Lactation reduction (Reducción Lactancia)	−4h/week	Circular 4

Clinic override: MAX_WEEKLY_HOURS = 60 is the system default. Clinics may set a lower max_weekly_hours at the CLINIC OrgUnit level but may never exceed 60h. The 60h ceiling is absolute.

Weekly computation: hours are always weekly (ISO week, Monday–Sunday) per [[adr-011-weekly-only-compute|ADR-011]], consistent with LCT 20.744’s weekly obligation model.

Consequences

• seed_tags.py references to “tope legal de 48h” and “Circular 4 lactancia” reflect this ADR and are intentional.
• MAX_WEEKLY_HOURS BLOCKING rule ([[adr-016-capacity-planning-patterns|ADR-016]]) has legal basis: LCT 20.744 Art. 201.
• Jornada Insalubre CONTRACT tag (36h) cannot be raised by clinic configuration.
• New CONTRACT tags must not define hours_delta > 48; values between 48h and 60h are only reachable via overtime, not base contracts.
• Ley 9539 effects are fully captured by the tag catalog ([[adr-019-tag-based-requirements|ADR-019]]) and [[adr-011-weekly-only-compute|ADR-011]]; no separate ADR needed.
• Circular 4 is fully captured by this ADR and the Reducción Lactancia tag.