Royal Decree-Law 29/2012, of December 28, on the improvement of management and social protection in the Special System for Domestic Employees and other economic and social measures. (Official State Gazette of December 31, 2012).
These are workers with a special employment relationship. Domestic workers must be hired by the head of the household to perform household chores, care for the home or family members, but they may also perform other tasks such as childcare, gardening, and/or similar duties.
Rights of domestic workers
Domestic workers have the same rights and duties as other workers, but with some special considerations:
- The probationary period cannot exceed 2 months, unless otherwise stated in the Collective Agreement.
- There are special rules to ensure safe and healthy working conditions, because the work is performed at home and not in a workplace.
- Accidents at work, even if they occur in a home, will be considered work-related accidents. The same accident at home will be considered a non-work-related accident for the homeowner or someone living there, but it will be considered a work-related accident for a domestic worker if it happened while they were working.
- The maximum legal working hours will also be 40 hours per week, but additional on-site time at the home can be agreed upon. The duration and payment for this on-site time must be agreed upon between the employee and the head of the household, and cannot exceed 20 hours per week, unless compensated with paid time off.
- Between workdays, if you are a live-in domestic worker, only 10 hours may pass instead of 12, with those two hours being compensated by accumulating rest periods.
- Live-in domestic workers have 2 hours a day for lunch, but these two hours are not counted as effective working time.
- Employees are entitled to 30 days of vacation, which can be divided into two or more periods, but one of these periods must be at least 15 consecutive days. The timing of these vacations must be agreed upon beforehand, and if no agreement is reached, the employer decides 15 days and the employee decides 15 days. If the employee is a live-in worker, they are obviously not obligated to live at the company during their vacation.
- Domestic workers do not contribute to unemployment insurance and therefore, upon termination of employment, they are not entitled to unemployment benefits unless they have accumulated contributions from previous jobs under the general scheme.
Conclusion
With the latest legal reforms, domestic workers have seen their rights increased, but some differences with other workers still remain.
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A graduate in Labor Relations from the Rovira i Virgili University of Tarragona, she began her professional career at the temporary employment agency Alta Gestión as head of recruitment, a position she later held at Marlex Gestió. She then joined Bufete Gatsa as head of the labor department. In June 2014, she joined Àmbit Assessor, SL to head the labor management department.
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