How to make the new calculation for domestic workers?

Increasing vacation days was not easy. For several years, legislators from different caucuses have proposed updating this rest period according to the efforts of the labor force. Mexico is the country with the most hours worked and the vacation period shortest of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

From the beginning, there was a clear reluctance from the companies. But finally, Senator Patricia Mercado (Movimiento Ciudadano) put more effort, provided a space for representatives of the world of workers and employers to reach an agreement. Thus, the Congress of the Union approved this month to reform the Federal Labor Law (LFT) and doubled the minimum vacation floor.

In this process, many people were active in defending the advancement of this right and judged the actions of some representatives of companies that opposed the expansion to be unfair. Many of those people who demanded more vacation days are, in turn, employers of domestic workers and will also have to comply with that obligation.

“The problem is that the reform that will increase vacation days does not take into account some jobs, let’s say, special, as is the case of domestic workers”, says the labor activist Manuel Fuentes Muñiz in an interview.

In Mexico, more than 2.3 million people They work in private homes, cleaning the property, washing and ironing clothes, preparing food, and caring for people and animals. Nine out of 10 are women, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi).

99% of the people who work in this sector of the occupation do not have written employment contract, says Fuente Muñiz, legal adviser to the National Union of Domestic Workers (Sinactraho). “That prevents the materialization of the vacation reform.”

For the doctor in Law, the statistical data on this population make it doubtful that, indeed, they can really be beneficiaries of the progressiveness of the right to vacations. 74% do not have employment benefits, “a situation that is accentuated in the case of women, since 75% of them do not have any benefits; in the case of men, the indicator is 65%”, according to the Results Report of the Pilot test for the incorporation of domestic workers to the mandatory Social Security regime.

“Only the 2.1% of women Those who do paid housework have access to health services as a job benefit, while 12% of men declared having access to health services as a benefit,” the document prepared by the Mexican Social Security Institute also states. (IMSS).

Formulas to calculate vacations

» Plant workers

Single 7% of households in the country hires full-time employees, living in the workplace, which is the home of a family, according to the Profile of employers of domestic workers in Mexicoprepared by the International Labor Organization (ILO).

For this labor scheme it is easier calculate holidays. When they are one year old, they will have 12 days, the salary for those days is not deducted and for the vacation premium, domestic workers must also receive 25% of the salary for that period.

The days will remain as for the rest of the workers, according to the following table:

» Entry-exit workers

The 92% of households hires the workers in the modality of entry by exit, according to the ILO document. Most of the employees are in this scheme, which makes it difficult for them to truly enjoy the reform, says Manuel Fuentes. According to the lawyer, this is the mechanism to calculate the days:

• Let’s say that the worker comes one day a week and completes one year working in that house. A year, there are 52 weeks. So, 365 days of the year are divided among all the weeks. That is, 365 ÷ 52 = 7
• Then, the 12 vacation days corresponding to the first year are divided by the previous result. That is, 12 ÷ 7 = 1.7
• What results is the number of vacation days. In this case, it is rounded up and there will be two days of vacation, the salary of both, plus 25% of the vacation bonus. That is, if she earns 300 pesos per day, the worker must receive 600 pesos for the two days that she will rest. Plus 150 pesos, which is 25% of the salary for two days.

All this calculation is the minimum you should receive. Some employers give them more days or a higher percentage of premium. But once again, as was the case with social security before the reform last October, it is left to the goodwill of the people who hire them, “instead of legislating for the case of their workers,” says the Sinactraho lawyer. .

In practice, most of labor rights they are non-existent for domestic workers, maintains Manuel Fuentes. “Most do not know what it is to take vacations, much less are they aware of the vacation bonus. In training meetings that we have had with them in the Union, they are surprised when they learn of this payment”.

The Sinactraho it conducts constant training in various parts of the country so that the workers know their rights and there they also receive complaints.

But those who come closer, says the academic from the Autonomous Metropolitan University (UAM), are those who were unfairly dismissed, “those who are working normally do not want to defend their rights, for fear of losing their job.” For this reason, he points out, it is necessary to regulate labor inspections in homes.