Labor requirements are often misunderstood or insufficiently understood, since it is believed that by writing down workers' contracts, this item has been fulfilled. However, in today's world, in which there is an increasingly protective culture of labor rights, writing down contracts is only the minimum desirable, which must be complemented with a series of other minimums.
Among the labor-related questions that all those who play the role of employer should ask themselves, we find the following:
Do my contracts comply with the minimum legal requirements?
Nowadays, standard contracts are not enough. A classic example is the contract bought in a bookstore. Ideally, contracts should be analyzed for each position so that the company's needs are adjusted to the legal limits that exist in different labor matters. For example, the contract must adjust to the legal minimums in terms of work hours, distribution of work hours, breaks, remuneration, and a long list of etceteras, all requirements that can change depending on the type of position, the industry in which it is performed and the service delivery system that has been agreed upon.
Am I up to date with the employment documentation that I am required to have?
As we mentioned before, employment contracts are today the first “rung” of a long ladder, but they are far from being the only employment documentation that the employer must have. There is, among others, documentation on social security, remuneration, safety, and a series of other matters in which the employer must have records, often in writing, or at least demonstrable before the corresponding authority.
Additionally, there are requirements that arise as the company exceeds a certain number of workers, for example, the obligation to have an Internal Regulation of Order, Hygiene and Safety, the obligation to provide a nursery, the obligation to have a Joint Committee on Hygiene and Safety, among others.
How do you say goodbye these days?
This may seem like an obvious and easy answer, but today it is not necessarily so. Nowadays, the dismissal process requires knowing certain minimum requirements, which range from the formalities necessary for the dismissal to be valid, to what are the reasons that can be invoked to dismiss someone or, in which cases the payment of benefits is appropriate and, what are these benefits. The list can be extended if we incorporate specific situations such as whether the worker has maternity leave or is using medical leave, all elements that must be considered and weighed when terminating a contract.
All these matters have undergone an exponential evolution in recent times, both at the legal level, through a series of reforms that have invaded the Labor Code, and also at the interpretative level, with the Labor Courts and the Labor Directorate having been the main architects and supporters of these changes. These changes force us to be up to date, as we are also in tax, financial or any other area relevant to the development of our business, understanding that forgetfulness or ignorance can lead to the generation of contingencies that can be quite costly for the company.