Título Primero

This Code regulates the rights and obligations of employers and workers, in connection with work, and creates institutions to resolve their conflicts.

Employer is any natural person or legal person who uses the services of one or more workers, by virtue of a contract or employment relationship.

However, the legal persons of public law referred to in Article 119 of the Constitution of the Republic are not subject to the provisions of this Code.

A worker is every natural person who provides to an employer manual services, intellectual services or services of both kinds under a contract or employment relationship.

Representatives of the employer are the individual persons who exercise on behalf thereof functions of direction or administration, such as managers, directors, administrators, recruiters and all those who are legitimately authorized by the latter.

The representatives of the employer in their relations with the workers directly bind the employer. Said representatives in their relations with the employer, except in the case of agents under a mandate, are bound to the latter by a contract or employment relationship.

An intermediary is any person who contracts in their own name the services of one or more workers to perform any work for the benefit of an employer. The latter is jointly and severally liable for the former's management vis-à-vis such worker or workers, with respect to the legal effects derived from the Constitution, this Code, its regulations and other applicable provisions.

A person who undertakes, by contract, work that they perform with their own equipment or capital does not have the character of intermediary but rather of employer.

A person's right to work may be limited only by means of a decision of a competent authority based on law, issued on grounds of public order or national interest. As a consequence, no one may prevent another from engaging in the lawful profession or activity that he or she pleases.

The freedom to work shall not be deemed limited when the authorities or private individuals act in exercise of the rights or in fulfillment of the obligations prescribed by the laws.

Employers may not assign or alienate the rights they hold by virtue of a contract or employment relationship, nor supply to other employers workers whom they have hired for themselves, without the clear and express consent of said workers, in which case the temporary or definitive substitution of the employer may not affect the work contracts to their detriment. The alienation that the employer makes of the respective enterprise is not included in this prohibition.

The sale or introduction of intoxicating beverages or drugs or narcotics, cockfights, games of chance and the practice of prostitution are prohibited in work zones. It is understood that this prohibition is limited to a radius of three kilometers around each work center established outside towns, since as to the latter, the provisions of the respective laws and regulations govern.

The exercise of commerce in work zones is free and no sum may be charged for such exercise. Taxes, fees and municipal levies legally established are reserved.

Notwithstanding the provisions of the preceding paragraph, said liberty may be limited or regulated if, in the judgment of the competent authorities, its unrestricted exercise harms the normal performance of the work, the interests of the workers or those of the collectivity.

The use of foreign languages is prohibited in the orders, instructions, notices or provisions given to workers.

The positions of those who immediately direct or supervise the execution of the work must be held by persons who speak the Spanish language, but if the work is performed in a region where the use of any indigenous dialect among the workers is widespread, such persons must also speak that dialect.

Taking any kind of reprisals against workers is prohibited for the purpose of partially or totally preventing them from exercising the rights granted to them by the Constitution, this Code, its regulations, or the other labor or social welfare laws, or on account of their having exercised them or having attempted to exercise them.

All juridical acts, documents and proceedings processed before the labor, judicial or administrative authorities, in relation to the application of this Code, its regulations or the other labor or social welfare laws, are exempt from the stamped-paper and stamp taxes.

The same exemption applies to labor contracts and conventions, whether individual or of collective nature.

All acts or stipulations that imply waiver, diminution or misrepresentation of the rights granted to workers by the Constitution of the Republic, this Code, its regulations and the other labor or social welfare laws and provisions are void ipso jure and do not bind the contracting parties, even if expressed in internal work rules, an employment contract or any other pact or agreement whatsoever.

Employers are prohibited from employing less than ninety percent Guatemalan workers and from paying the latter less than eighty-five percent of the total wages earned in their respective enterprises, except as special laws may provide in this regard. Both proportions may be modified:

a)When so required by evident reasons of protection and promotion of the national economy, or by lack of Guatemalan technicians in a given activity, or for the defense of national workers who demonstrate their capacity. In all such circumstances, the Executive Branch, by means of a reasoned order issued through the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, may decrease both proportions by up to ten percent each and for a period of five years for each enterprise, or increase them to eliminate the participation of foreign workers.

If said Ministry authorizes the decrease of the said percentages, it must require the benefited enterprises to train Guatemalan technicians in the field of their activities within the time limit granted to them for such purpose; and

b)When there occur cases of immigration authorized and controlled by the Executive Branch or contracted by the same and which enters or has entered the country to work in the establishment or development of agricultural or livestock colonies, in social assistance institutions or institutions of a cultural nature; or when dealing with Central Americans by origin. In all such circumstances, the scope of the respective modification must be determined at the discretion of the Executive Branch, but the order issued through the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare must clearly state the reasons, limit and duration of the modification made.

For the computation of what is stated in the first paragraph of this article, fractions shall be disregarded and, when the total number of workers does not exceed five, Guatemalan status shall be required of four of them.

The provisions of this article are not applicable to managers, directors, administrators, superintendents and general chiefs of enterprises.

Any simulation of a company and, in general, any act or contract tending to violate these provisions, is void ipso jure and furthermore gives rise to the application of such criminal sanctions as may be applicable.

This Code and its regulations are legal norms of public order and all enterprises of whatever nature, existing or to be established in the future in Guatemala, shall be subject to its provisions, as shall all inhabitants of the Republic, without distinction of sex or nationality, except for the legal persons of public law contemplated in the second paragraph of Article 2.

Likewise, the protective provisions for the worker contained in this Code shall be applied to the case of nationals who are hired in the country to render their services abroad.

Furthermore, the exceptions that correspond in accordance with the principles of International Law and treaties are reserved.

Discrimination on the grounds of race, religion, political creeds and economic status is prohibited in social assistance, education, culture, entertainment or commerce establishments operating for the use or benefit of workers, in enterprises or workplaces of private ownership, or in those that the State creates for workers in general.

The access that workers may have to the establishments referred to in this article may not be conditioned on the amount of their wages nor on the importance of the positions they hold.

Cases not provided for by this Code, by its regulations or by the other laws relating to labor, shall be resolved, in the first place, in accordance with the principles of Labor Law; in the second place, in accordance with equity, local custom or usage, in harmony with said principles; and finally, in accordance with the principles and laws of Common Law.

In case of conflict between labor or social welfare laws and those of any other kind, the former shall prevail. There is no preeminence between social welfare laws and labor laws.

For purposes of interpreting this Code, its regulations and other labor laws, the interest of the workers in harmony with social convenience must fundamentally be taken into account.