Título Cuarto. Trabajo Sujeto a Regímenes Especiales

Rural workers are the peons, farmhands, day laborers, livestock workers, crew workers and other analogous workers who perform in an agricultural or livestock enterprise the work proper and customary thereto.

The foregoing definition does not include accountants or other intellectual workers belonging to the administrative staff of an agricultural or livestock enterprise.

All agricultural or livestock work performed by women or minors with the consent of the employer confers upon such women or such minors the status of peasant workers, even if such work is attributed the character of assisting with or complementary to the tasks performed by the peasant worker who is head of family. Consequently, such peasant workers are deemed to be bound to said employer by an employment contract.

No persons may be representatives of the employer or intermediaries in an agricultural or livestock enterprise:

a)Those who have been “enablers of day laborers”;

b)Those who engage in promoting or carrying out any of the activities referred to in Article 7;

c)Workers in the service of the State or its institutions, except in the case of agricultural or livestock enterprises owned by one or the other, or which are under their administration;

d)Habitual drunkards; and

e)Those who fail to demonstrate before the General Labor Inspectorate that they are of good antecedents and conduct, without whose written authorization no person may act as a representative of the employer or as an intermediary of the latter.

The representatives of the employer who engage in the recruitment of peasant workers, in addition to the authorization determined by the preceding article, need a power of attorney signed by the latter to carry out their activities.

Said power of attorney must be executed in duplicate and a copy thereof must be sent to the *Administrative Department of Labor. The other copy must remain in the possession of the employer's representative and he may not make use of it if the General Labor Inspectorate does not place its approval at the foot thereof.

Said power of attorney must be renewed each year.

Recruiters of peasant workers must receive a fixed wage from their employer and the latter is prohibited from giving them gratuities or additional emoluments for the services they provide to him in the exercise of such power.

It is the obligation of the employer or his representative to require the peasant worker, before hiring him, to present to him the document referred to in Article 92 as evidence that his immediately preceding contract with another agricultural or livestock enterprise has already terminated.

If the immediately preceding contract of said worker was verbal, the employer or his representative may also require presentation of the certificate alluded to in Article 27, final paragraph.

It is the obligation of the General Labor Inspectorate to instruct peasant workers to the effect that they must demand, in defense of their interests, the exhibition of the power-of-attorney letter indicated in Article 141 before contracting their services with a recruiter of workers.

Departmental and municipal authorities must cooperate with the Inspectorate in compliance with the indicated obligation.

With the object of better applying the principles and provisions of this Code to agricultural or livestock enterprises and to rural workers, the Executive Branch, by means of agreements issued through the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, must regulate this chapter on the following bases:

a)The respective regulations may be applicable to the entire territory of the Republic or to only a determined region, and in any case, they must be issued after previously hearing the employers and workers who are affected;

b)Said regulations must be issued taking into account the uses and customs of each locality; and may increase the minimum guarantees that this Code grants to rural workers, in all those cases in which the corresponding employers customarily give, are legally required to give, or are able by reason of their economic capacity to provide greater benefits to such workers, such as medical service and medicines, per diems, schools and teachers, funeral and maternity expenses; and

c)Whenever said regulations contain any provision related to the services that the Guatemalan Social Security Institute provides or may provide, it is indispensable to request its opinion and approval for the promulgation thereof, with the exclusive purpose of achieving coordination that avoids duplication of charges for employers or duplication of efforts or benefits in favor of workers.

Agricultural workers have the right to dwellings that meet the hygienic conditions established by health regulations. This provision shall be imposed by the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare gradually on employers who are in an economic position to fulfill said obligation.

The work of women and minors must be especially suitable to their age, conditions or physical state and intellectual and moral development.

It is prohibited:

a)Work in unhealthy and dangerous places for men, women and minors, according to the determination thereof to be made by the regulation, or in the absence thereof by the General Labor Inspectorate;

b)

c)Night work and overtime of minors;

d)Daytime work of minors in bars or other similar establishments in which alcoholic beverages intended for immediate consumption are sold; and

e)Work by minors under fourteen years of age.

The daytime ordinary working hours indicated in article 116, paragraph 1, shall be reduced for minors as follows:

a)By one hour daily and by six hours per week for those over fourteen years of age; and

b)By two hours daily and by twelve hours per week for young persons who are that age or younger, provided that the work of the latter is authorized in accordance with following article 150.

It is understood that in accordance with the same article 150, a smaller reduction than that ordered by this subparagraph may also be authorized.

The General Labor Inspectorate may issue, in cases of qualified exception, written authorizations to permit ordinary daytime work by minors under fourteen years of age, or, as applicable, to reduce, totally or partially, the reductions to ordinary daytime working hours imposed by the preceding article.

For this purpose, persons interested in having the respective authorizations issued must prove:

a)That the minor is going to work by way of apprenticeship or has need to cooperate in the family economy, due to extreme poverty of his parents or of those who have charge of his care;

b)That the work concerned is light work in terms of its duration and intensity, compatible with the physical, mental and moral health of the minor; and

c)That the compulsory education requirement is complied with in some form.

Each of the said authorizations must clearly set forth the minimum protection conditions under which the minors must work.

Employers are prohibited from:

a)Advertising, by any means, their job offers, specifying as a requirement for filling the positions the sex, race, ethnicity, and marital status of the person, except where, by the very nature of the employment, it requires a person with specific characteristics. In this case the employer must request authorization before the General Labor Inspectorate and the National Office for Women.

b)Making a distinction between single and married women and/or women with family responsibilities, for purposes of work.

c)Dismissing female workers who are in a state of pregnancy or lactation period, who enjoy protection against dismissal. Except for justified cause arising from serious breach of the duties derived from the contract, in accordance with the provisions of Article 177 of this Code. In this case, the employer must process the dismissal before the labor tribunals, for which it must prove the breach and may not make the same effective until obtaining the express written authorization of the tribunal. Should the employer fail to comply with the foregoing provision, the female worker may resort to the tribunals to exercise her right to reinstatement in the work she had been performing and shall be entitled to payment of the wages not earned during the time she was without working.

d)In order to enjoy the protection related to the preceding subsection, the female worker must give notice of her condition to the employer, being provisionally protected from that moment, and within the following two months she must provide medical certification of her pregnancy status for her definitive protection.

e)Requiring pregnant women to perform work requiring considerable physical effort during the three (3) months prior to childbirth.

The working mother shall enjoy a paid rest with one hundred percent (100%) of her wage during the thirty (30) days preceding childbirth and the 54 days following; the days that she cannot enjoy before childbirth shall be accumulated to be enjoyed in the post-partum stage, in such a way that the working mother enjoys eighty-four (84) effective days of rest during that period:

a)The interested party may only leave work by presenting a medical certificate stating that childbirth will probably occur within five (5) weeks counted from the date of its issuance or counted back from the approximate date indicated for delivery. Every physician who holds a remunerated position with the State or its institutions is obligated to issue this certificate free of charge, upon presentation of which the employer must give acknowledgment of receipt for purposes of subsections b) and c) of this article.

b)The woman to whom the rest has been granted has the right to have her employer pay her wage, unless she is covered by the benefits of the Guatemalan Institute of Social Security, in which case the provisions of the regulations that the latter puts into effect shall be observed; and to return to her position once the post-partum rest has concluded or, if the respective period is extended pursuant to the final provision of the following subsection, to the same position or to an equivalent one in remuneration that bears relation to her aptitudes, capacity and competence.

c)In the case of unintentional abortion or non-viable premature birth, the paid rests indicated in subsection a) of this article shall be reduced by half. In the event that the interested party remains absent from her work for a longer time than that granted as a consequence of illness which according to a medical certificate originates from pregnancy or childbirth, and which incapacitates her for work, she retains the right to the benefits established in preceding subsection b), during the entire period required for her recovery, provided that it does not exceed three months counted from the moment she left her work.

d)Holidays and weekly rest days and annual leave coinciding within the rests ordered by this article must be paid in the manner indicated in the fourth chapter of the third title, but the employer is relieved, during the time it satisfies said benefits, from paying what is established in preceding subsection b).

e)Payment of the wage during the rest days before and after childbirth is subject to the rest of the worker and must be suspended if the Guatemalan Institute of Social Security or the General Labor Inspectorate, at the employer's request, verifies that said worker engages in other remunerated work; and

f)A worker who adopts a minor shall be entitled to post-partum leave so that both enjoy an adaptation period. In such case, the leave shall begin on the day immediately following that on which the minor is delivered to her. To enjoy this right the worker must present the corresponding documents evidencing the adoption proceeding.

Every female worker in the lactation period may have at the place where she works half an hour twice a day during her work for the purpose of feeding her child. A female worker in the lactation period may accumulate the two half-hours to which she is entitled and enter one hour after the start of the workday or leave one hour before it ends, for the purpose of feeding her minor son or daughter. Said hour shall be remunerated and non-compliance shall give rise to the corresponding sanction for the employer.

The lactation period shall be computed from the day on which the mother returns to her work until ten (10) months thereafter, unless it must be extended by medical prescription.

The wage that must be paid during the rest periods ordered by the two preceding articles must be calculated as follows:

a)When the work is paid by unit of time, the value of the benefits indicated in Article 152 must be fixed by taking the average of ordinary and extraordinary wages earned during the last six months or shorter fraction of time, if the female worker has not completed this term, counted in both cases from the moment she ceased her work; and the value of the benefits indicated in Article 153 must be calculated taking as effective working time that spent in the respective rest periods; and

b)When the work is paid in another manner, the value of the benefits indicated in Article 152 must be fixed by taking the average of the wages earned during the last ninety days or shorter fraction of time, if the female worker has not completed this term counted in both cases from the moment she ceased her work; and the value of the benefits indicated in Article 153 must be determined by dividing the wage earned in the respective pay period by the number of hours actually worked and then establishing the corresponding equivalence.

Every employer who has more than thirty female workers in his service is obligated to condition a dedicated room so that mothers may safely feed their children under three years of age and may leave them there during working hours, under the care of a suitable person designated and paid by the employer. Such conditioning shall be done in a simple manner within the economic means of the employer, in the judgment and with the approval of the General Labor Inspectorate.

Home-based workers are those who make articles in their home or in another place freely chosen by them, without the supervision or immediate direction of the employer or the latter's representative.

The sale by the employer to the worker of materials with the purpose that the latter transform them into specified articles and, in turn, sell them to the former, or any other analogous case of simulation, constitutes an employment contract for home-based work and gives rise to the application of this Code.

Such simulations are prohibited.

Every employer who uses the services of one or more home workers must keep a book sealed and authorized by the *Administrative Department of Labor, in which the following must be entered:

a)The given names and surnames of said workers;

b)The address of the place where they live;

c)The quantity and nature of the work or works entrusted;

d)The quantity, quality and price of the raw materials that he supplies;

e)The date of delivery of such materials to each of the workers and the date on which the latter must return the respective articles already made; and

f)The amount of the corresponding remunerations.

In addition, he must have receipts printed in duplicate, which the worker must sign each time he receives the materials to be delivered to him or the wage to which he is entitled; and which the employer must sign and give to the worker each time the latter delivers to him the work performed. In all such cases the applicable specification or individualization must be made.

If one of the parties does not know how to sign, he must affix his respective fingerprint.

Defective work or evident deterioration of materials authorize the employer to withhold up to one-tenth of the wage received by home workers, while the resulting liabilities are discussed and declared.

The remuneration of home workers must be paid for deliveries of work or for periods of not more than one week and in no case may be less than those paid for equal work in the locality or than the wages to which they would be entitled if they worked inside the workshop or factory of an employer.

The employer who violates this provision must be sentenced to pay compensation to each of the workers, equivalent to double the wages that each has failed to receive.

The sanitary or labor authorities must prohibit the performance of home-based work, by means of formal notification that must be made to the employer and to the worker when markedly unsanitary conditions prevail in the workplace, or a case of tuberculosis or of an infectious-contagious disease occurs. Upon proven cessation of these circumstances, or upon the departure or recovery of the sick person and due disinfection of the place, permission to resume work must be granted.

The employer to whom ten or more home-based workers request premises for their work is obligated to provide them, with said workers in this case remaining as enterprise workers.

Domestic workers are those who habitually and continuously engage in cleaning work; assistance and other tasks proper to a household or other site of private residence or dwelling, which do not entail profit or business for the employer.

Unless otherwise agreed, the remuneration of domestic workers comprises, in addition to payment in money, the provision of lodging and board.

The employer may require from the domestic worker, before formalizing the employment contract and as an essential requirement thereof, the presentation of a certificate of good health issued within the preceding thirty days by any physician holding a remunerated position with the State or its institutions, who must issue it free of charge.

Domestic work is not subject to a schedule nor to the limitations of the working hours, and Articles 126 and 127 are not applicable to it either.

However, domestic workers enjoy the following rights:

a)They must enjoy a minimum and mandatory absolute rest of ten hours daily, of which at least eight must be nighttime and continuous, and two must be allocated to meals; and

b)On Sundays and holidays indicated by this Code they must necessarily enjoy an additional rest of six remunerated hours.

Cases of illness shall be governed by the following rules:

a)Any contagious or infectious-contagious disease of the employer or of the persons who inhabit the house where the domestic services are rendered gives the worker the right to terminate his contract unless it concerns conditions for which measures of prevention of proven efficacy exist and have been taken.

The employer has the same right with respect to the domestic worker affected by an infectious-contagious disease, except where it has been contracted under the terms of subparagraph d);

b)Any illness of the domestic worker that is minor and that incapacitates him for his work for one week or less obligates the employer to provide him with medical assistance and medicines;

c)Any illness of the domestic worker that is not minor and that incapacitates him for his work for more than one week gives the employer the right, if he does not avail himself of the provisions of Article 67, to terminate the contract, once said period has elapsed, with no other obligation than to pay the other party one month's wage for each year of continuous work, or fraction of time of not less than three months. Such compensation may not exceed the amount corresponding to four months' wage;

d)In the cases of the preceding subparagraph, if the illness has been contracted by the domestic worker by direct contagion from the employer or from the persons who inhabit the house, he has the right to receive his full wage until his complete recovery and to have covered the expenses that for such reason he must incur;

e)In every case of illness requiring hospitalization or isolation, the employer must arrange the admission of the domestic worker to the nearest hospital or charitable center and bear the reasonable expenses of transportation and other emergency care and give immediate notice to the closest relatives; and

f)If as a consequence of the illness the domestic worker dies in the employer's house, the latter must bear the reasonable burial expenses.

In all cases enumerated in this article, what is provided by the regulations issued by the Guatemalan Institute of Social Security shall remain unaffected, provided that the domestic worker in question is protected by the corresponding benefits thereof.

The lack of respect or the notorious mistreatment by the domestic worker toward the persons who inhabit the house where the services are rendered and the domestic worker's own manifest neglect in the performance of his obligations are also just causes for the employer to terminate the contract, without liability on his part.

Transport workers are those who serve in a vehicle that performs the conveyance of cargo and passengers or of one or the other, whether by land or by air.

Those who do not possess the age, technical knowledge, and physical and psychological aptitudes determined by the applicable laws or regulations may not be transport workers.

The violation of the prohibition indicated in Article 64, subsection c) and the notorious lack of respect owed to passengers are also just causes for the employer to terminate the contracts of such workers.

In order to better apply the principles and provisions of this Code to air or land transport enterprises, the Executive Branch, by means of agreements issued through the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, shall issue the regulations provided for in the preceding article and such others as it deems necessary, on the following bases:

a)The respective regulations may be applicable to the entire territory of the Republic, to a single transport activity or to a specific enterprise and, in any case, shall be issued after previously hearing the employers and workers affected thereby; and

b)Said regulations shall be issued taking into account the need not to interrupt the continuity of service inherent to said enterprises, the safety which they must offer to the public and the rights of the workers.

Apprentices are those who undertake to work for an employer in exchange for the latter teaching them in practical form an art, profession or occupation, whether directly or through a third party, and giving them the agreed compensation, which may be less than the minimum wage.

The apprenticeship contract may only be stipulated for a fixed term, and must determine the duration of the instruction and its gradual development, as well as the amount of the remuneration corresponding to the apprentice in each grade or period thereof.

The General Labor Inspectorate must oversee to ensure that every apprenticeship contract lasts only as long as, in its judgment, is necessary, taking into account the age of the apprentice, the type and method of instruction and the nature of the work.

At the end of the apprenticeship contract, the employer must give the apprentice a certificate recording the fact of having learned the art, profession, or trade concerned.

If the employer refuses to issue said certificate, the General Labor Inspectorate, at the request of the apprentice, must order the administration of an aptitude examination, which must be conducted at one of the State's industrial-education schools, or, failing that, by a committee of workers expert in the respective art, profession, or trade, advised by a Primary Education teacher.

If the apprentice passes the examination, the employer may not fail to issue the certificate within the following twenty-four hours.

The examinations referred to in this article are not remunerated.

The employer may dismiss without liability on his part an apprentice who suffers from manifest incapacity for the art, profession or trade in question.

The apprentice may terminate the contract with only five days' prior notice.

Work and teaching in correctional arts-and-trades establishments and in other analogous institutions shall be governed by the provisions of this chapter insofar as they are applicable and by the special provisions set forth in the regulations issued by the Executive Branch, through the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare and Public Education.

Sea and navigable waterway workers are those who provide services proper to navigation on board a vessel, under the orders of its captain and in exchange for maintenance and the wage they have agreed upon.

Services proper to navigation are all those necessary for the direction, maneuvering and attendance of the ship, its cargo or its passengers.

The employment contract entered into by said workers is called an embarkation contract.

The employer is the shipowner or ship operator, whether or not the owner of the vessel, who fits out, equips and dispatches it in its own name and for its own account and risk; and who receives the profits it produces and bears all the liabilities affecting it, in accordance with Article 2.

The captain of the vessel is the representative of the employer, unless the same employer acts as captain, and enjoys these powers:

a)He is the superior head of the vessel and the government and direction thereof are in his charge. The crew and passengers owe him respect and obedience in all matters relating to the service of the vessel and to the safety or salvage of the persons and cargo it carries; and

b)He is a delegate of the public authority for the preservation of order on the vessel and for the service, safety or salvage thereof as indicated in the preceding subsection. He also has the attributions and must fulfill the duties prescribed for him by the laws of common order.

The embarkation contract may be entered into for an indefinite time, for a fixed time limit or for a voyage.

In contracts for an indefinite time or for a fixed time limit the parties must determine the place where the worker is to be returned once it has concluded. In the absence of this stipulation, the place where the worker embarked must be deemed as designated.

The contract for a voyage includes payment of a wage agreed globally for a period counted from the embarkation of the worker until the unloading of the vessel is completed in the port expressly indicated or, in the absence of said stipulation, in the national port where the employer is domiciled.

In case of doubt regarding the duration of the embarkation contract it must be understood that it ends upon completion of the outbound and return voyage to the port of departure.

The employer shall always be obligated to return the worker to the place or port which for each type of contract the preceding article establishes, before deeming it concluded. The case of casualty is not excepted, but the case of imprisonment imposed on the worker for a crime committed abroad and other analogous cases denoting absolute impossibility of performance is excepted.

If a Guatemalan vessel changes nationality or perishes by shipwreck, the embarkation contracts relating to it shall be deemed concluded at the time the obligation referred to in Article 179 is fulfilled. In the respective cases each of the workers has the right to a fixed compensation equal to two months' wage, unless a greater one corresponds to them pursuant to Articles 82 or 84.

The following are just causes authorizing the employer to terminate the contracts of embarkation, in addition to those enumerated in Article 77:

a)The voluntary and manifest violation or disobedience of the orders given by the captain in the exercise of his authority;

b)The abandonment of the vessel's watch;

c)Failure to show the respect owed to passengers; and

d)Violation of Article 64, subsection c).

The following are just causes empowering the workers to terminate their embarkation contracts, in addition to those enumerated in Article 79:

a)When the destination of the vessel is changed before beginning the voyage for which they have been contracted;

b)When a state of war is declared between Guatemala and the nation to whose territory the vessel is destined;

c)When there is reliable news, before beginning the voyage, of the existence of an epidemic at the port of discharge; and

d)When the captain dies or is replaced by another who is not a guarantee of safety, fitness and sound direction, before the departure of the vessel.

The parties may not terminate any embarkation contract, even for just cause, while the vessel is on voyage.

The vessel shall be understood to be on voyage when it remains at sea or in any national or foreign port other than those indicated in Article 178 for the return of the worker.

However, if, while the vessel is in any port, the master finds a substitute for the worker who wishes to leave his duties, the latter may terminate his contract subject to the legal provisions.

During the compulsory continuance in force of the embarkation contracts provided for in this article, the limitation period for any just causes that may exist for terminating them shall not run.

The vessel, with its machinery, rigging, gear and freights, shall be liable for the payment of the wages and indemnities owed to the workers by virtue of the application of this Code.

By the mere fact of voluntarily abandoning their work while the vessel is on a voyage, the worker loses the wages not received to which they are entitled and incurs any other applicable legal liabilities. This shall not apply where the captain finds a substitute pursuant to the provisions of Article 183.

The employer must distribute pro rata among the remaining workers the amount of said wages, if there is no additional workload; and proportionally among those who take the place of the absentee, otherwise.

The worker who suffers from any illness while the vessel is on voyage has the right to be cared for at the expense of the employer both on board and on shore, with enjoyment of one-half of his wage, and to be reinstated, when he has recovered and provided he so requests, in accordance with the provisions of Articles 178 and 179.

Without prejudice to the provisions of the regulations issued by the Guatemalan Institute of Social Security in the exercise of its powers, where the sick worker is protected by the corresponding benefits thereof.

Workers hired by trip are entitled to a proportional increase in their wages, in case of prolongation or delay of the trip, unless this is due to fortuitous event or force majeure.

In the event that the trip is shortened, whatever the cause, wages shall not be reduced.

The strike declared by the workers when the vessel is navigating or anchored outside port is illegal.

Every owner of a merchant vessel that employs the services of five or more workers when on a voyage shall draw up and put into force its respective internal work rules.

Taking into account the nature of the work performed by each worker, the lesser or greater urgency thereof in a given case, the circumstance of the vessel being in port or at sea and the other analogous factors that are of interest to them, the parties shall enjoy, within legal limits, broad liberty to determine matters relating to working hours, rest periods, shifts, annual leave and other matters of a similar nature.

In order to better apply the principles and provisions of this Code to employers and workers of the sea and navigable waterways, the Executive Branch, by means of agreements issued through the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, shall issue the regulation or regulations of this chapter that it deems necessary to promulgate.

Such regulations shall coordinate the fundamental conditions of the embarkation contract with the provisions of the fifth chapter of this title and with the other provisions of a legal nature, distinct from this Code, that are applicable.

The relations between the State, the municipalities and other entities supported with public funds, and their workers, shall be governed exclusively by the Statute of State workers; consequently, such relations are not subject to the provisions of this Code.

The Statute of State workers shall regulate all matters relating to their selection, promotion, transfer, exchange, suspension and removal, and the obligations, rights and benefits to which they are entitled.

Workers who provide their services to entities or institutions which, by their nature, are subject to special discipline, shall be governed by their ordinances, statutes or regulations.