Employment benefits and dismissal in Honduras

When your contract of employment ends, what you are owed is not a single amount: it is several separate items, each with its own rule. Here is each one, with the article of the Código del Trabajo that establishes it.

Legal basis: Código del Trabajo de Honduras, Decreto No. 189-59.

What you must be paid when dismissed without just cause

• Preaviso (notice pay) — Article 116. Advance notice, or its cash equivalent.
• Auxilio de cesantía (severance) — Article 120. One month’s wages per year worked, with caps and rules by length of service.
• Untaken holiday — Article 349, on the scale in Article 346.
• Décimo tercer mes (the aguinaldo, a thirteenth month) — Decreto 112-82.
• Décimo cuarto mes (a fourteenth month) — Acuerdo 02-95.

To estimate the amounts using your own dates and wage, use the severance calculator.

Holiday: it is not 15 days for everyone

Source: Article 346, Código del Trabajo. These are working and consecutive days.

The same article clarifies that continuity of employment is not broken by unpaid leave, the rest periods the Código grants, justified illness, or the extension or renewal of the contract. If you are still working and want to know how many days you have accrued, use the holiday calculator.

Preaviso: how much notice you must be given

In an open-ended contract, either party may end it by giving notice to the other. During that period, a worker about to be dismissed is entitled to one paid day of leave per week to look for new work.

Source: Article 116, Código del Trabajo.

Notice may be omitted by paying the other party the corresponding amount under Article 118. If it is the employer who failed to give it, they must pay you an amount equal to your wage for the whole notice period.

Auxilio de cesantía: how much per year worked

Source: Article 120, paragraphs a) to d).

If you have more than a year, time that does not complete a full year is paid pro rata. Severance must be paid even if you start work with another employer the next day.

Voluntary resignation after 15 years. Paragraph g) of the same article provides that if you resign voluntarily after fifteen or more years of continuous work, you are entitled to 35% of what you would be owed for years of service. In the case of natural death after six months of work, that percentage rises to 75% in favour of your beneficiaries.

If you work for a microempresa, the caps are different. Article 120-A defines a microempresa as any economic unit with a maximum of ten (10) paid employees. In that case paragraph g) — the 35% for voluntary resignation after fifteen years — does not apply, and the severance cap drops from 25 to fifteen (15) months. It is a large difference and almost nobody mentions it.

The 25-month cap, the 35% on resignation and Article 120-A all come from Decreto Legislativo No. 150-2008, which partially amended Article 120 of the Código del Trabajo (La Gaceta No. 31,753, 5 November 2008).

Article 123 adds two rules worth knowing: compensation is calculated on the average of the last six months of wages, and it cannot be garnished, sold or assigned — except as to half, for maintenance payments.

When a dismissal is justified

Article 112 lists the just causes that allow an employer to end the contract without liability on their part — that is, without paying notice or severance. They include acts of violence, insult or mistreatment during work; material damage caused deliberately; disclosing technical or commercial secrets; being absent without permission or justified cause for two full consecutive days or three working days in a month; and conviction for a crime or offence by final judgment.

The employer saying that one of those causes exists does not make it true. If you believe the dismissal was unjustified, the time limit to claim is short — see below.

Can a pregnant woman be dismissed from her job in Honduras?

Not without prior authorisation. Article 144 is explicit: no worker may be dismissed on grounds of pregnancy or breastfeeding. And it establishes a presumption in the worker’s favour: dismissal is presumed to have been on grounds of pregnancy or breastfeeding when it occurs during pregnancy or within three months after the birth without the corresponding authorisation. A worker dismissed without that authorisation is entitled to compensation equal to sixty days’ wages, in addition to any other compensation owed.

Under Article 145, to dismiss during pregnancy or the three months after the birth the employer needs authorisation from the Labour Inspector — or from the Municipal Mayor where no such official exists — and it may only be granted on the basis of one of the causes in Article 112.

I signed a fixed-term contract, but it has been renewed several times

Article 47 answers this directly. Contracts for work that is by its nature permanent or continuous in the business are deemed to be for an indefinite term even if a duration is stated in them, if on expiry the cause that gave rise to them or the subject matter of the work still exists.

The same article adds two important things: length of service is counted from the start of the employment relationship, even if that does not match the date of the written contract; and fixed-term contracts are exceptional — they are only proper where the accidental or temporary nature of the service genuinely requires it. This matters because length of service is the basis for both notice and severance.

I worked overtime after my shift

The ordinary daytime working day may not exceed eight hours a day or forty-four a week (Article 322). The night shift may not exceed six hours a day or thirty-six a week. All effective work beyond those limits is overtime and, under Article 330, is paid at a premium:

Source: Article 330, Código del Trabajo.

Which public holidays must be paid

Article 339 requires employers to pay these public or national holidays, even when they fall on a Sunday: 1 January, 14 April, 1 May, 15 September, 3 October, 12 October, 21 October and 25 December, plus the Thursday, Friday and Saturday of Semana Santa.

Under Decreto 78-2015, the holiday applies as follows:

• Public-sector employees — from the first Wednesday of October each year.
• Private sector — from Wednesday at 12:00 noon until Saturday at 12:00 noon.

Source: Decreto Legislativo No. 78-2015, La Gaceta No. 33,834 of 14 September 2015, amending Article 1 of Decreto 75-2014.

Where the wage is set fortnightly or monthly, payment for holidays not worked is already included implicitly.

You have two months to claim

But it is not always two months. If you left because the employer gave you cause — what the law calls despido indirecto (constructive dismissal) — the limit is one (1) month, not two, counted from the moment the employer gave cause for the separation (Article 865). That is half the time, and it is the situation of anyone resigning over harassment, non-payment or a unilateral change of conditions.

The limit runs both ways: the employer also has one month to claim against a worker who abandons their post without justification (Article 866).

Where to claim

The Secretaría de Trabajo y Seguridad Social, through the Dirección General de Inspección del Trabajo, receives complaints of non-compliance. To sue for payment, the route is the Labour Courts, within the two-month limit. If you need representation, you can search the lawyer directory.