Ceuta Eases Hiring Rules for Moroccan Domestic Workers, Allowing Hourly Pay

To hire border domestic workers in Ceuta, it was necessary to sign them a full-time employment contract and pay them a monthly salary for 30 to 40 hours of work per week. The government delegation plans to relax this measure and allow anyone to hire these workers and pay them in proportion to the number of hours worked, starting from 30 hours per week, reports El Faro de Ceuta.

The delegation presented this reform at the beginning of the week to the Confederation of Employers and the associations of lawyers and graduates in social sciences during a meeting in which it also presented the other innovations proposed in the new regulation of the law on foreigners, such as residence permits for studies that will serve as both work permits.

Before the border closure, more than 2,100 Moroccan domestic workers were registered with the social security system in Ceuta. But since its reopening in May, the labor and immigration department of the delegation has revised the conditions, prohibiting their affiliation to social security if their employment contract does not provide for a minimum gross monthly remuneration of 3,000 euros, which is the minimum interprofessional wage (SMI) set by the delegation since February.

In practice, this would amount to maintaining the remuneration of a border domestic worker at around 1,350 euros per month. With the possibility of hiring for 30 hours, the residents of the autonomous city who have already hired for 40 hours risk reducing the working hours to pay only about 1,000 euros to the latter.