From the labor field, the needs of commerce have generated the creation of schemes for the rendering of services other than the one known as “employer – employee” relationship. These needs of the market have allowed the emergence of other figures such as intermediaries, contractors, and/or outsourcing, including the so-called employment agencies. For this reason, it is important to delimit the liability of each figure by determining in which cases the so-called “joint and several liability” would apply.
The labor joint and several liability refers to those cases in which an employee may exercise his claims or demand against a “subject” as main defendant and a second subject, who becomes called to comply with the same obligation as the first one, due to particularities and characteristics that the same labor legislation points out, being its main objective, that the employee obtains full satisfaction of his rights.
In order to know about the aspects of joint and several liability, it is necessary to conceptualize the subjects of the labor relationship:
- “Worker” or “Employee”: is any natural person who renders to another or others, natural or juridical, material, intellectual services, or both, through the payment of a remuneration and by virtue of an employment contract or relationship”. The fundamental element, according to the referred concept, is that the work is performed personally and not through a third party.
- “Employer”: According to a standard definition, it is a natural or legal person, private or public law, that uses the services of one or more workers, by virtue of an employment contract or relationship, which entails that the obligation to pay all social benefits in force in favor of the employee falls directly on him/her.
In an employer-employee relationship, the liability of each one is clearly identified, Read more
