Brazilian and Argentine interns, an internship regime has just been sanctioned in Argentina that will benefit young professionals from Brazil and Argentina and will make it easier for companies from both countries if they intend to favor their first-contract employees with work experience in its foreign subsidiary.

The recent law 26,719 approved the “Agreement between the Government of the Argentine Republic and the Government of the Federative Republic of Brazil regarding the Exchange of Interns”, which was signed in our country in 2001.

Companies from either of the two Mercosur countries now have a transparent and effective internship system, which will provide legal certainty in this type of contracting (which in Argentina has been used in an anti-functional way and, mainly, to avoid labor costs). . This new labor tool will allow companies to evaluate – within the legality granted by the legal framework of the International Agreement – ​​an initial way of planning the labor costs involved in said first hiring. This is due to the attenuation of the important tax cost that Social Security resources entail.

The International Agreement has in view the simplification of the rules for the admission of foreigners in the field of professional and technical cooperation between companies located in Brazil and Argentina. It constitutes an ideal means to develop an adequate training of professionals and experts. The cooperation and mutual understanding between both countries is highly beneficial, and with the objective of developing an exchange between people who carry out a professional improvement activity, on a temporary basis, in the territory of either of the two countries.

The International Agreement provides that national professionals of one of the Contracting Parties – who are called interns – who enter the territory of the other Party invited to carry out an internship, on a temporary basis, in a legally constituted public or private entity, with the purpose of To hone your professional knowledge and the local language, you will benefit from the local internship scheme.

The intern may exercise any profession for whose exercise restrictions are not applied to foreigners. The person must be over 18 years of age and have at least a professional or university degree.

The internship must be authorized by the authority that each Party designates for that purpose, regardless of the existing labor market situation in the Party where it will be carried out. The internship will be agreed for a maximum period of 12 months and will not be extendable. Interns shall enjoy the same rights and duties applicable to nationals of the Party in whose territory they perform the internship.

In short, a concrete possibility is opened up with an adequate legal framework for young professionals through this system that has sometimes generated -at the local level- certain excesses. With this international Agreement and the treaties being the supreme law of the Nation, companies will enjoy a suitable and safe legal framework for the mutual benefit of interns, companies and the integration of both States.

ALTAMIRANO & ASOCIADOS