Brazil has long had clear laws that seek to guarantee basic and essential rights to workers in the most diverse areas. This also includes housekeepers.
As a craft that is often overlooked by society, these workers, in addition to being important, have several rights that must be respected and properly granted. In this text you will get to know better what these rights are.
What this article covers:
What defines being a maid?
A domestic employee is anyone who performs services in a continuous, personal, subordinate and onerous manner and for non-profit purposes to a person or family, in their residential environment, for more than two days a week.
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This is what is established by Complementary Law No. 150 of June 2015, a very important text for the category.
What are the rights of the maid?
Domestic workers have many rights, some of which are even little known. Let’s see some of the most important ones.
The workday in this category can have a maximum of 44 hours a week and eight hours a day. The only exception to this rule can happen when there is adherence to the regime of 12 hours of work and 36 hours of rest, something that is provided for in the regulation of the profession.
Another right guaranteed to the maid, and which is basic, is the minimum wage. The professional must receive monthly remuneration equal to or greater than the minimum wage practiced in the country (which today is R$ 1,212). In some specific states, the category also has a salary floor that must also be respected by the employer.
Overtime also enters into this account of guaranteed rights for housemaids. Every hour worked more than what is established in the contract must be compensated in some way, either with payment in cash (with a minimum additional 50% of the normal hourly rate) or releasing earlier on other occasions (something that can be agreed between employee and employer).
The thirteenth salary and paid vacations are also rights guaranteed by law for this category. In the case of vacations, they must be 30 days every twelve months worked, but the way in which it will be taken can be agreed between the parties, provided that one of the vacation periods lasts at least 14 days.
In addition to these, paid weekly rest, unemployment insurance, FGTS and transportation vouchers are some other examples of rights granted to maids.
What is not entitled to a maid?
Despite the large amount of rights available, many of which are also granted to workers in other categories, domestic workers do not have access to all the benefits that are normally granted to those who work with CLT.
An example of this is the PIS wage bonus. The maid has a different working relationship than most people who are CLT, as she does not provide services to a legal entity, but to an individual.
Because she does not have a business relationship, the maid is not entitled to receive the salary allowance.
What is the right of the maid in the termination?
When a worker with a formal contract is dismissed from his job, a series of rights are guaranteed for him. With housekeepers it is no different. Check out the rights in this category in the three most common contract termination situations.
Dismissal without just cause
In the case of dismissal without just cause, the maid is entitled to receive salary for the days worked in the month, in addition to the thirteenth day and vacation corresponding to the length of service.
She can also withdraw the FGTS plus a 40% fine (paid in advance by the employer monthly on eSocial). In addition, the employee can also receive unemployment insurance if it is within the category criteria.
Rights when resigning
If it is the employee who resigns, she is entitled to a salary proportional to the time she worked in the month in which she resigned, in addition to thirteenth bonus and vacations also proportional to the time worked.
In this case, the employee will not be able to apply for unemployment insurance or have access to the FGTS.
Agreed dismissal
In this case, the maid can withdraw 80% of her FGTS. In addition, the FGTS fine increases from 40% to 20%. As in the previous situation, in this case the employee cannot apply for unemployment insurance either.
