Decree-Law 128/2026

Decree-Law 128/2026 is the Cuban instrument, approved on 3 September 2026, that lets foreign-capital enterprises hire Cuban staff directly and gives them wider financial autonomy. It was followed a day later by a revised Decree 325, which rewrites the separate procedure for submitting, approving and winding up foreign investment; the two instruments do different jobs.

Before the decree-law, a foreign employer paid the state in hard currency and the state paid the Cuban worker a fraction of it in pesos, keeping the spread. Decree-Law 128/2026 makes that state employment agency optional rather than compulsory for the firms it covers.

Nothing published since 3 September confirms a firm has used the new right: no model contract has appeared, and officials describe the agency as continuing to exist alongside it.