Confused, one of the workers asks the question in the virtual group: “Does anyone know if we get a Christmas bonus?” Immediately her companions try to guide her: “It depends on how long you’ve been in that house”, “It depends on your patterns. They told me that it is a gift, that if they want, they will give it ”. Household employees have right to receive Christmas bonus and the employers, the obligation to pay it, in accordance with the Federal Labor Law (LFT).
Article 334 Bis of the LFT indicates that these are the performance that all plant or entry-by-exit employees must receive:
- Aguinaldo
- Holidays
- Vacation premium
- Rest days pay
- Mandatory access to social security
- And any other benefit agreed between the parties
And article 87 of the same legal framework establishes that all people who work “will have the right to an annual bonus”, both those who have already completed a year in their employment, and those who have been working for less time. By law, this benefit must be paid before December 20.
“It is our obligation as employers. It is not, by any means, a matter of good will, ”says Marcela Azuela Gómez, coordinator of Hogar Justo Hogar. This organization is primarily aimed at people who hire domestic workers and seeks to promote human rights and non-discrimination in this sector.
The ignorance of your rights, but also an unequal relationship of power with those who are their employers prevents many from demanding their due, says Marcela Azuela.
It’s like family
One of the first sectors affected by the confinement and by the economic crisis due to the pandemic was the paid work from home. At the beginning of 2020, around 2.4 million women were employed in this activity, but by October 2021 only 2.1 million had been able to return to work, according to the National Survey of Occupation and Employment (ENOE).
Guillermina Hernández did not stop working, which is not completely positive. For 13 years he has traveled twice a week from San Salvador Atenco, State of Mexico, to the vicinity of the Chabacano Metro station. And it has been less than a year that he has moved another two days to San Pablo Chimalpa, in Cuajimalpa. It would have been almost impossible that in his five-hour journeys, on average, he had not been infected with covid-19.
“Last year it hit me, but thank God I’m fine now.” Convalence lasted nine months, during which time he did not work, so he was not paid.
He was 14 when he started work in a house. She was recruited as is still customary among middle-class families and beyond: the employer asked “the girl” —as they disdainfully call the workers— of one of her friends to get her one for her. In this way, the adolescent came to Mexico City from the community of La Lagunilla, municipality of Tetela de Ocampo, Puebla, to take charge of cleaning a house and taking care of a couple with two babies. “Alejandrita was 8 months old and Alan was 5 years old,” he recalls.
Mrs. Guillermina Hernández is now 53 years old and continues to work as housekeeper. Her salary was always more than complementary to that of her husband, manager of a small auto parts store and now a watchman, to raise their four children.
For eight years he worked as a staff in the house of Dr. Rodríguez and his family. “I never received anything from him other than my salary. I once asked him if he could give me aguinaldo and he told me that I was wrong, to thank God that he was giving me a job and that I had no right. And if I didn’t like it or if I was going to start asking, that I could go ”.
In 2008 began work around the house of an elderly lady, who lives with her retired son. He cleans, washes, irons and makes food. Here it should be noted that their stews have been praised by each of the families who have had the privilege of having it. 40 years ago, when she arrived from her town, she knew how to prepare “just the basics: sauce with egg, ribs, but here one is learning”.
The 83-year-old employer pays her 500 pesos a day and has been going every Tuesday and Friday, for 13 years. On December 16 he will receive 2,500 pesos of Christmas bonus. But they have not enrolled her in the pilot program for domestic workers of the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS). “No, until now you are telling me, I did not know him.”
That is works in informalityLike 98% of women who are dedicated to this activity, therefore, they do not have paid disabilities, insurance for occupational diseases, access to health services, or savings for retirement. A few years ago, when he went out to dump the trash, he fell and broke his right leg. “I was in a hurry, because it was late and I wanted to go home, even though I fell at work, they didn’t help me, they didn’t pay me for the doctor or the days I didn’t go.”
Even so, Guillermina Hernández says that they love her like someone from the family. “Breakfast and I eat with them and they always give me aguinaldo on the 16th “. You still don’t know if the other employers, those in Cuajimalpa, will pay you this benefit. He knows that records are made in that house, “when the artists arrive I have to serve six or seven people. I start at 7 in the morning and don’t stop until 11 at night, those days I stay there ”.
The formula to calculate the bonus
The Support and Training Center for Household Employees (Caceh) and the Nosotrxs organization have published easy formulas for calculate the bonus of the workers. The one that perhaps causes the most confusion is the one that must be paid to those who work only a few days a week.
But let us assume that article 87 of the Federal Labor Law points out that if the worker has already completed one year in employment, she is entitled to 15 days of salary.
Let’s start with the plant employees. Here it is better to do the operation based on the monthly salary, according to Nosotrxs. Let’s say the family that hired you knows that in 2020 domestic workers entered the list of professional minimum wages, so they must earn at least 154 pesos a day. Rounding up numbers, he receives 4,700 pesos a month.
Example for the case of a worker who worked all year:
- 4,700 pesos / 30 days = 156.66 pesos is the daily salary
- 156.66 pesos of daily salary x 15 corresponding days of Christmas bonus = 2,349.90 pesos
- The worker will receive 2,349.90 pesos as a bonus
Example for a worker who worked six months (180 days):
- 4,700 pesos / 30 days = 156.66 pesos is the daily salary
- 156.66 pesos of daily salary x 15 corresponding days of Christmas bonus = 2,349.90 pesos
- 2,349.90 pesos / 365 days = 6.43 pesos
- 6.43 pesos are multiplied by 180 working days = 1,157.40 pesos
- The worker will receive 1,147.20 pesos as a bonus after working 180 days
Now we go to the case of entry-by-exit workers and let us exemplify with Guillermina Hernández. In this calculation, you have to multiply the salary you are paid each day by the number of times you go a week, and that result by two, to comply with the two weeks that the law dictates. She goes Tuesday and Friday and they pay her 500 pesos each time.
- 500 x 2 days a week = 1,000 pesos is the weekly salary
- 1000 x 2 weeks a month = 2,000 pesos per fortnight
- The worker will receive 2,000 pesos as a bonus from that employer
“The 15 day payment It is the least they should be paid, but they can give you more. We must be aware that at this time it is very necessary, there are many expenses, and it is a way to compensate for all the hard work they do over the course of a year ”, says Marcela Azuela. “What we recommend is that they pay him a whole month’s salary as a bonus and there are those who even give them 40 days.”
The pandemic and inflation as a result of it, has also affected employers, says the activist. “But benefits and rights They are not up for discussion, it is not whether or not we have the Christmas bonus. If they are hiring a domestic worker, it is because they have the income to take responsibility ”, aputna.
On the Fair Employment at Home page, he notes, there is a calculator for Christmas bonus. Also the app Worthy, which is available for Android cell phones, there you can find more information about other rights, such as the IMSS pilot program.
And in the Home Fair Home page there are examples of contracts and the Fair Employer Handbook, or “you can send a message on Facebook, if you are an employer or if you are a worker.” It is also possible to contact the National Union of Domestic Workers (Sinactraho) on the phone (55) 1945-7669 or a WhatsApp message to the number (55) 1966-3613.
Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx