ES

Honduran law firm. Corporate advice, compliance and permits; employment and administrative litigation.

Practice areas

Employment law

We act for employers and for employees in disputes arising from the employment relationship, before the Ministry of Labour and the Honduran labour courts.

What foreign employers most often get wrong

Honduran employment law is public order. Article 128 of the Constitution declares void any act or agreement that waives or diminishes the statutory guarantees it lists, and article 3 of the Labour Code extends that rule to any document, however it is signed. In practice this means three things that surprise companies used to other jurisdictions:

  • A signed release does not settle the matter. A settlement document evidences that the employee received a sum; it does not validate a payment below the statutory minimum, and the employee's signature does not cure it.
  • Regular payments form part of the salary base. Amounts paid consistently count towards severance calculations even where they carry another label, which is a common source of understated liabilities.
  • Termination is procedural, not only substantive. Having a valid cause is not enough if the procedure and the notice periods were not observed.

Advisory work

  • Employment contracts and internal regulations drafted for Honduran law rather than adapted from a foreign template.
  • Termination procedures, including documentation and calculation of what is owed.
  • Severance exposure, calculated per employee rather than by averaging across a workforce.
  • Labour inspections and dealings with the Ministry of Labour.

Litigation

Where a claim is unavoidable, an employment case does not necessarily end at first instance. These are the stages it may pass through:

  1. First instance

    1. Claim, admission and service
    2. Answer
    3. Conciliation hearing
    4. Evidence and submissions
    5. Judgment

  2. Appeal

    1. Notice of appeal
    2. Submissions
    3. Appellate judgment

  3. Cassation

    1. Cassation appeal
    2. Formalisation and answer
    3. Judgment

  4. Enforcement

    1. Liquidation
    2. Demand for payment
    3. Payment or attachment

Not every case runs the full course: many settle at the conciliation hearing. Duration depends on the court, its caseload and the conduct of the other side, so we do not offer time estimates we cannot stand behind.

A note on limitation periods

An employee's claim against an unjustified dismissal is barred two months after the contract ends, under article 864 of the Labour Code. It is a short window and it runs regardless of any negotiation in progress. For an employer this cuts both ways: exposure is time-limited, but so is the opportunity to settle on terms of your choosing.

Putting a matter to us

Write to us with a brief description of your situation and the relevant dates. We will tell you whether the matter falls within this practice and how we would proceed.

Write to the firm