Melilla Sees Sharp Decline in Domestic Workers After Morocco Border Closure

"The autonomous city has 500 people registered in the Special Regime for Household Employees," said Augusto Hoyo, the provincial director of the General Treasury of Social Security (TGSS) in Melilla, specifying that this number is barely a third of the number of Moroccan women domestic workers who worked in the city before the closure of the border with Morocco for health reasons.

Augusto Hoyo also stressed the obligation for employers to comply with the regulations in force regarding the remuneration of these domestic employees, insisting that the salary of the latter "must reach, at least, the current Interprofessional Minimum Wage (SMI), to which bonuses are added".

The SMI for 2022, approved last February, has been set at 1,000 euros, or 33.33 euros per day, informs the TGSS manager in Melilla, inviting employers to approach his structure to communicate "the new remuneration of domestic employees with retroactive effect to January 1, 2022".

This salary cannot be less than 1,166.67 euros for people with a full-time employment contract and 7.82 euros gross per hour worked for those with a part-time contract, he explained, adding that if the remuneration paid is higher than this amount, it must be declared.