Holiday accrual for domestic workers

Holiday accrual for domestic workers

How holiday accrues for colf (housekeepers) and badanti (carers)

Article 17 of the Collective Agreement (Contratto Collettivo) establishes that domestic workers accrue 26 days of holiday a year, at least 2 weeks of which must be taken within the year and the rest within the 18 months following the year in which they accrued, normally in the period from June to September.

The rule needs interpreting for part-time workers: where the work is spread not from Monday to Saturday but, for example, over just one or two days a week, the part-time worker still accrues the 26 working days, but their value is proportionally reduced.

This can be inferred from the minuted statements (dichiarazioni a verbale) of the same collective agreement, which provides that “The daily pay is calculated as 1/26 of the monthly pay”.

Does holiday accrue during absences too?

The twenty-six days of holiday accrue in 12 monthly instalments (ratei), and each month counts towards the instalment if the employment relationship has been active for at least 15 calendar days.

The employment relationship counts as active even if there are days of unpaid absence. The holiday instalment fails to accrue only if the employment is suspended for leave of absence (aspettativa) or if, in the month of hiring or dismissal, there are fewer than 15 calendar days of active employment.

How should holiday be expressed for a colf?

If a domestic worker works full time from Monday to Saturday, the 26 days of holiday correspond to 4 full weeks off plus another 2 days (4 six-day weeks + 2 days).

If a domestic worker works only some days a week, they still have 26 days of holiday a year, but every day from Monday to Saturday must be counted when calculating holiday, even if they work, for example, just one day a week.

For workers who work only some days a week, it is advisable to express holiday in hours.

When holiday is expressed in hours, you count the working hours that fall within the 26 days of holiday provided for by the rules. To work out how many hours of holiday the worker is entitled to on the basis of their working schedule, the calculation is:

weekly working hours x 4.3334 weeks

If holiday is expressed in hours, the code FE is entered on the working days only, instead of across the whole week from Monday to Saturday.

How holiday is paid

If holiday is expressed in 26ths, each day of holiday is paid at 1/26 of the monthly wage.

A live-in worker on holiday is also entitled to the allowance in lieu of board and lodging (indennità sostitutiva di vitto e alloggio). This allowance is due because the worker, spending their holiday away from the workplace, cannot receive board and lodging in kind, so it is paid in cash through this specific allowance.

There is a practical problem with the amount to pay when just one day of holiday is requested in the middle of the week, especially for part-time contracts with very few hours: the worker would in fact find their monthly pay lower than average, given the way the contract sets the daily pay at 1/26.

For example:

a part-time schedule of 12 hours a week, distributed as follows:
– Monday: 4 hours
– Tuesday: 4 hours
– Wednesday: 4 hours

For a day of holiday to be paid at 1/26 of the monthly wage, the whole working week from Monday to Saturday has to be considered, even though Thursday to Saturday are not working days for this worker.

But if the worker asks to be off only on Monday and Wednesday, how many days of holiday taken should be recorded?

These questions are resolved by choosing to accrue holiday in hours rather than days, counting as taken only the days, or even half-days, actually requested.

If holiday is expressed in hours, a day of holiday is paid exactly like a day worked, and if the worker asks for holiday on a day that is not a working day under the contract, they receive no pay for it.

Finally, since many users forget to mark holiday on non-working days, the program accrues holiday in days, counting only the days actually worked each week and paying them (in the case of holiday in days) for the number of working hours of that day. This simplifies management while ensuring the equivalent pay provided for by the CCNL (national collective labour agreement) in 26ths.

Equivalence of the holiday accrual systems allowed for colf

Although the Collective Agreement states holiday accrual in days, choosing to express holiday in 26ths, in hours or in actual days makes no difference: the three systems are equivalent, and here is the proof:

take, for example, a colf who works from Monday to Friday for 25 hours a week and is paid 5.11 euros an hour.

If holiday accrues in hours, the monthly instalment will be:
25 x 4.3334 (weeks per month) ÷ 12 = 9.0279 hours a month, which x 5.11 euros = 46.13

If holiday accrues in days, the monthly instalment will be:
5 working days x 4.3334 ÷ 12 = 1.8056, and each day is paid according to the working hours of that day, on average 5 hours, so = 1.8056 x 5 hours x 5.11 euros = 46.13

If holiday accrues in 26ths, the monthly instalment will be:
26 ÷ 12 = 2.1667, but each day of holiday is paid (25 weekly hours x 4.3334 weeks ÷ 26 days = 4.1667 hours), so 2.16 x 4.16730 x 5.11 = 46.13

In all 3 cases, the pay for the holiday accrued in a month stays the same.