The Supreme Court does not apply Huatuco to regional workers and orders reinstatement

The Fourth Transitional Chamber of Constitutional and Social Law of the Supreme Court declared the cassation appeal of Alex Ahuite Lomas well-founded and ordered his reinstatement as a field operator in the Regional Government of Loreto, after concluding that the Huatuco Precedent is not extensible to workers of regional entities. The sentence, dated September 8, 2026, was published this Tuesday, November 3, 2026, in the Cassation section of the official newspaper El Peruano, under the reference Cassation No. 52027-2022 Loreto.

The case spanned nearly seven years of legal proceedings. Ahuite Lomas filed a lawsuit on February 18, 2019, alleging unfair dismissal: he had provided services as a field operator in the Regional Office of Citizen Participation of the Regional Government of Loreto from October 4, 2015, to January 31, 2019, first under a service provision contract and later through administrative service contracts (CAS), and his link was terminated due to the expiration of the CAS contract, without any allegation of misconduct related to his behavior or capacity.

The first-instance judge declared the lawsuit well-founded on August 26, 2021, and recognized the employment link under Legislative Decree 728 since October 4, 2015. The Superior Chamber revoked that ruling on January 21, 2022, with a different reasoning: since he was a regional worker and not a municipal one, it considered that the Huatuco Precedent was indeed applicable and that, as he had not entered through a public merit-based competition, reinstatement was unfeasible.

The facts proven by the Chamber

• Service provision: from October 4, 2015, to February 28, 2017, and from May 1 to August 14, 2017.
• CAS contracts: from March 1 to April 30, 2017, and from August 15, 2017, to January 31, 2019.
• Last position: field operator in the Regional Office of Citizen Participation of the Regional Government of Loreto.
• Accumulated time: more than three years and three months of uninterrupted service.
• Termination: January 31, 2019, due to the expiration of the CAS contract.

A regime with two stages and a doctrine being refined

The Chamber recalled that the regime for regional workers went through two stages. Law 27867, published on November 18, 2002, and in effect from the following day, subjected workers and employees to the public labor regime. Later, Law 30889, published on December 22, 2018, and in effect from the 23rd of that month, specified that workers of regional and local governments are not covered by the Civil Service Law and are governed by the private regime of Legislative Decree 728, meaning that since then, a public regime for employees and a private one for workers coexist.

On that basis, the member emphasized that the requirement for entry via a public merit competition of the Huatuco Precedent, contained in the ruling of File 05057-2013-PA/TC, is only applicable to those pursuing an administrative career, that is, employees. He cited the delimitation made in the Cruz Llamos case (File 06681-2013-PA/TC) and the jurisprudential doctrine of Cassation 34268-2019-Cajamarca, according to which that precedent does not apply to municipal, regional, or any public administration body workers. He added that CAS is a modality designed for employees, therefore regional workers could not be hired through that route since December 23, 2018.

The ruling: reinstatement and computation from December 2018

Based on these grounds, the Chamber declared the appeal founded, quashed the appellate judgment and, acting as a court of first instance, confirmed the appealed sentence ordering the reinstatement of the plaintiff. It specified that the private regime of Legislative Decree 728 is recognized only from December 23, 2018, to January 31, 2019, and declared the previous period inadmissible, as it corresponds to the public regime of Legislative Decree 276 and must be addressed through the contentious-administrative route.

The text specifies that the 40 days elapsed since the entry into force of Law 30889 do not break the continuity of the bond, and that the termination constituted an unfair dismissal. The sentence carries the report of Supreme Judge Ávila Huamán and the signatures of judges Castillo León —president—, Rubio Zevallos, Yalán Leal, and Chiu Pardo; its publication in El Peruano was ordered under responsibility.

The ruling standardizes the criteria for an extensive labor universe: regional governments have maintained workers subject to the private regime since 2019 and, with this doctrine, their hirings via CAS are questioned and their terminations due to contract expiration are exposed to reinstatement without the requirement of a public competition. The practical limit is temporal: the economic effects and the recognition of the private regime are limited to the period after December 23, 2018.

Source: El Peruano, Tuesday, November 3, 2026 edition, Cassation section, p. 1547 (official reference: Cassation No. 52027-2022 Loreto).