... Legal Update part 3
Labor Contract Terminations ...
by Lic. Romulo Pacheco for the ARCR

In a previous article we talked about the special conditions of the Housemaid labor contract and all the benefits and important conditions of this special contract. These are important to know when you hire someone, but it is also important to know about normal contracts and the consequences of termination. These consequences will depend on certain acts or attitudes of the contractor and the worker and depending on this, there will be money involved.

The first thing you have to know is- Who is an employee? What special characteristics, established by law, determine who is and who is not a employee.

THE CONCEPT:

The person you call your employee has to do the following.

1. Any person who provides you a service, whether material or intellectual.
2. The individual gives that services in virtue of a Work Contract
3. This Contract can be verbal or written, individual or collective
4. This person receives a salary for his work, he has a eight hour work day, and is subordinated to your orders.

This defines the person you can call your employee. He has to follow your rules and you have to follow the legislation in order to create these rules. Both are protected by law in case of differences and work problems

PROBLEMS WITH YOUR EMPLOYEE

Costa Rica's, Labor Law protects the indiscriminate dismissal of employees without a just case. This just cause is established by law and will determine if the worker is entitled to compensation for his dismissal, or he was fired and deserves no compensation due to his actions or work attitude.

JUST CAUSES TO FIRE AN EMPLOYEE

These are established by the Labor Code, in its article 81, and they are the following:

A. When the workers conduct during his job is immoral, or he insults, slanders or hits his employer. It is difficult to determine exactly what is immoral, but we can go by the normal behavior of a person, which will not do things that, for the general public, is not correct. This will depend on the case, and also its analysis
B. When the workers conduct is the same mentioned above, but against a work mate, in working time, and that with his actions he disturbs work and efficiency in the job.

C. When the worker after working hours , and out of the work facilities, insults, slanders or hits his employer, or his representatives in the job, only if his actions where not provoked by them, and as a consequence of the event, the daily living and working condition is impossible for the efficient development of work.

D. When the worker commits a crime or a grave damage to the property of the employer, or when he intentionally causes a damage in the materials or the machinery, tools, raw materials, products and any other object related with no doubt to the job.

E. When the worker reveals the employer's secrets of the products, techniques or commercial strategies.

F. When the worker, because of his inexcusable unwise conduct, puts in danger the security of the working area, or of the people inside.

G. When the worker does not come to work, without a permission from the employer, or without a justification for two days consecutively or three days in a month.

H. When the worker denies in a reiterative mode, to adopt the preventive measures or the indicated procedures to prevent accidents or illness, or when he denies in the same way, the directives for efficiency issued by his employer, causing grave loss in the production or the services.

I. When the worker after been censured once for his actions according to items a,b,c,d,e continues the same actions.

J. When the employee at the moment of making the work contract, lied, pretending to have special qualifications for the job, knowledge, or presented fake references that can be proved false, or that while performing his job it is obvious he does not have the capability to do that for which he has been contracted.

K. When the worker is serving a sentence for a criminal act.

L. When he worker commits a grave fault to the obligations established in the contract.

The only thing you pay to dismiss a worker who fits any of the previously sited are Vacations (pay one day for each month worked) and Aguinaldo (add all the amount he has earned from the past December to the date and divided into 12,and that will give you the amount to pay for aguinaldo).

If the worker is fired without one of the just causes sited above, he will be entitled to Vacations, Aguinaldo, as well as Pre-aviso and Cesantia.

- "Pre-aviso", this is a legal figure, that gives the worker the right to be indemnified, if the employer is letting him go without proper notice, this figure will work under the following conditions:

a. If the worker has less than 30 days working, you don't have to give them previous notice.
b. If he or she has from 30 days to 6 months working, you have to give one-week notice or the equivalent in cash.
c. If the worker is 6 months to 1 year on the job, you have to give 15 days notice or the equivalent in cash.
d. If the worker has over a year working for you, the previous notice is one month, or that same amount in cash.

For every week of "PRE-NOTICE" or "PREAVISO", they have one extra day off to find a new job.

- The term "Cesantía" is used to give the worker some laying off insurance money in case they don't find a job in the period of time they are on "PRE-NOTICE", this amount will be paid by the contractor in the following way.

a. If the worker is less than 30 days old in the job he is not entitled to any amount.
b. If he or she or he has 30 days to six months, then the amount is the equivalent to ten days work.
c. If they've worked from 6 months to one year, they get paid 20 days work.
d. From one year and on, 1 month of salary for each year worked until you reach 8 months maximum.

This information is important, so you know what can be expected from a work relation with an employee. The basic information is provided here but you know that every individual case is different and might or might not fit in one of the above.