Global HR Compliance in Haiti

If you hire international workforce, or plan to hire, then Hiring and Firing Workforce in Haiti Guide below will help you understand the nuances of labor legislation in the country.

Companies hire international workforce for various reasons but in most cases they are:

• entering the foreign markets to sell company products. To do so, the company hires sales representatives who would represent their product and sell it to their local client base.
• hiring a global talent with unique skills that is unavailable in the local market or costs the company less than the talent with similar skills hired in the home country.

Before entering a certain foreign market or engaging a global talent, it is crucial for the company to understand how it can make local hires and reward its workers on a monthly basis. Growing companies often face a challenge of paying benefits and bonuses to the commission-based independent sales representatives they are working with.

If you intend to hire and pay your foreign workforce in full compliance with labor laws and regulations of Haiti, then the Global Employer of Record service from Acumen International may be the best way for you to go. We are an International PEO company and we specialize in global employment, meaning we can employ your employees in Haiti and act as their legal employer on your behalf. We will payroll your foreign workforce monthly and provide benefits to them through our global network so you don’t have to set up your own legal entities there.

We are experts in global workforce employment in , and our goal is to become your single provider. Instead of working with numerous local staffing agencies and legal advisors, Acumen International can solve your global business challenges and save you time, costs, and resources.

Our team of English-speaking professionals frees you from working through language nuances. Acumen International works 24/7 and can assist you whenever you need, regardless of time zones. Our goal is to create tailored labor solutions for you that are managed legally and in full compliance with the local employment laws.

With our knowledge and deep understanding of local nuances, you easily satisfy your need for skilled professionals in your global industry. With our qualified local partners, you can trust that your global workforce satisfies all local tax, social security, and immigration requirements in Haiti.

See the guide below for a general overview of labor rules and regulations in Haiti or contact us if you need to employ workers in Haiti or would like to get more details.

Hiring and Firing Workforce in Haiti Guide

# Employment contracts

Any person may be a party to an individual contract of employment, as an employee, unless he has a work permit issued by the Directorate of Labor, in the forms, under the conditions and under the penalties provided by law.

The individual contract of employment is express or implied, verbal or written, and may be concluded for a fixed or indefinite duration. The fixed-term contract is the one whose term is fixed in advance by the will of the parties.

The contract of indefinite duration is one whose term is not planned in advance and which may cease at any time by the will of the worker or that of the employer, without prejudice to the legal provisions regulating the termination of the employment contract job. The contract of employment obliges both what is expressed in it and what results from it in good faith, equity, use, custom or law.

An employer is any natural or legal person under civil or private law who, by virtue of an employment contract, hires the services of others in return for the performance of a specific job. An entrepreneur is any person who engages the services of one or more others to perform work for the benefit of an employer and with or without the resources provided by the employer. The contractor is considered as employer.

# Minimum (Statutory) Employment Rules and Regulations in Haiti

# Hours of work:
Hours of work is the time during which the worker is at the disposal of the employer. Rest will be excluded during which the worker is not available to the employer. In all agricultural, industrial and commercial establishments, the duration normal work is eight hours a day and forty-eight hours a day week. Without exceeding nine hours a day for industrial establishments and ten hours a day for commercial establishments and offices, the parties may agree among themselves to divide weekly hours of work otherwise than by eight hours a day, only when the work schedule is forty-eight hours weekly or when the work establishment uses the services of its staff six days a week.

# Annual leave:
Every worker whose employment is of a permanent nature shall be entitled, after one year of service, to a holiday with pay of at least fifteen consecutive days, including thirteen working days and two Sundays. Non-working holidays and breaks in work due to illness or maternity of which the worker has benefited must not be deducted from these fifteen days of leave.

A worker who, having the right to paid annual leave, quits his job for any reason before receiving it will receive the amount corresponding to the salary of fifteen days of work. The annual leave is divisible into fractions in case of suspension, revocation or resignation of the worker, for whatever reason, before the expiry of his year of service and regardless of the length of employment. The worker shall be entitled to one-quarter day for each month or for each thirty-day period of work provided, taking into account the weekly work schedule of the company. In jobs where work does not continue on a regular basis year, including coffee export establishments, small industry workshops, building material factories, etc., the annual vacation of the worker will be calculated on the basis of the number of working days provided, including Sundays and holidays, divided by 30.

The annual leave must be paid separately from the notice in the event of a break in employment contract. The employer who will occupy during the period fixed for his legal leave a paid work, even outside the company, will be considered as not giving legal leave, without prejudice to the damages to which he may be sentenced and which shall not be less than the amount of compensation due to the worker for his paid leave.

# Parental leave:
Women that are pregnant are entitled to maternity leave of six (6) weeks paid, which can be up to three (3) month paid through the satisfaction of certain conditions.

# Sick leave:
The worker is entitled to a total of fifteen days of sick leave per year without reduction of salary. To benefit, the worker will have to submit a medical certificate from the company doctor or a doctor public health service. If the worker does not have one year of service, he will have entitlement to sick leave calculated in proportion to the length of service already provided. Sick leave is not cumulative. However, it may be extended in accordance with the provisions of Article 130 of the Labour Code.

# Overtime:
The limit of working hours provided for in the previous article may be exceeded in the event of an accident occurring or imminent, or in the case of emergency work to be carried out on machinery or equipment, or in case of force majeure, but only to the extent necessary to prevent serious inconvenience to the normal operation of the establishment; to prevent the loss of perishable materials or to avoid compromising the technical result of the work; to enable the institutions to cope with extraordinary extra work from special circumstances, provided that the employer can not normally be expected to take other measures.

Overtime provided in excess of the normal hours of work will be paid with a mark-up of 50 per cent and entered for the purpose of control of the competent authority, on the personnel register, as well as the salary paid to the staff who performed these overtime hours and the reason for which they have been requested, without prejudice to the increase for night work.

Overtime is prohibited for work of a character dangerous or unhealthy, except with the express authorization of the Directorate of Labor. The number of overtime hours that can be worked will be fixed in each case without exceeding the limit of eighty hours per quarter for industrial establishments and two hours a day without exceeding three one hundred and twenty hours a year for commercial establishments. They can be used with the authorization of the Directorate of Labor, after consulting labor unions where they exist. This one can forbid the use of overtime in the event of unemployment, with a view to hiring unemployed workers.

# State minimum salary:
In segment A industries: 225 Haitian gourdes per day; Segment B Industries: 240 Haitian gourdes per day; Segment C industries; 260 Haitian gourdes per day; Servants: 125 haitian gourdes per day (8 hr work day); 225 Haitian gourdes per day for companies with piece work that re-export; and 300 Haitian gourdes per day for companies with piece work that export. Haiti’s minimum wage was last changed in May 2014.

# Employee dismissal:
The employment contract may be terminated:

• as of right;
• by the mutual consent of the parties;
• by the will of one of the contracting parties.

The employment contract is terminated automatically in the following cases:

• the expiry of the term of the contract;
• completion of the work in the case of contracts concluded for a particular work;
• grounds for termination expressly stipulated in the contract;
• death of the employee or case of force majeure duly proved;
• complete and definitive closure of the business following the death of the employer.

The automatic termination of the individual employment contract will entail no liability for the contracting parties in the first four cases only. The last two cases remain subject to the legal provisions on notice. The mutual consent of the parties to the termination of the individual employment contract shall be evidenced in writing if they are bound by a written contract. In the case of a verbal contract, this consent may be in writing or verbally given in the presence of two witnesses. It will not be the responsibility of either party as a result of the termination of the individual employment contract by mutual consent.

An employee who wishes to terminate the contract of employment concluded for a definite duration or not without resulting in responsibility for him will inform then Labor Directorate.