Quick summary: Guatemala’s Labor Code lets an employment contract be paused without ending it (Art. 65). There are four kinds: individual partial (one side stops, e.g. paid leave or illness), individual total (both stop, e.g. agreed unpaid leave), and collective partial or total (most or all of a workplace, e.g. lack of raw material or force majeure). For a collective suspension other than a strike or lockout, the employer has 3 days to start proving the cause before the Inspección General de Trabajo (Art. 73 b); if the Inspectorate rejects it, workers can quit with liability for the employer. In a collective suspension caused by something other than a strike or lockout, once more than three months have passed the contracts can be ended if the employer pays the Art. 82 or 84 benefits, or the workers give the legal notice (Art. 74). The 2020 online procedure (AM 140-2020) was COVID-only by its own text.
Checked on 24 September 2026 against the Labor Code (Decreto 1441) in the Organismo Judicial’s CENADOJ edition updated to 30 April 2014, Arts. 65-76. This page is about suspending an employment contract; suspending a business’s tax activities at SAT is a different procedure: see temporary suspension of business activities at SAT.
The four kinds of suspension (Art. 65)
| Kind | Art. 65 definition | Causes |
|---|---|---|
| Individual partial | One employment relationship; one party stops its fundamental obligations | Art. 66 |
| Individual total | One relationship; both parties stop | Art. 68 |
| Collective partial | One cause affects most or all of the relationships in a business or workplace | Art. 70 |
| Collective total | Same, and both sides are released from their fundamental obligations without liability | Art. 71 |
Individual suspension
Partial (Arts. 66 and 67): the worker is off, the employer pays
Article 66 lists: (a) paid leave, rest and vacation imposed by law or granted by the employer with pay; (b) illness, occupational accidents, pre- and post-natal rest and similar social risks that cause a proven temporary incapacity; and (c) the duty in Article 63 e) to work without extra pay.
For (a) and (b), Article 67 relieves the worker from work and obliges the employer to pay the wage that applies. In case (b), if the worker is covered by the IGSS (Guatemala’s social security institute), the employer pays only the contributions its regulations require. If the worker is not covered by the IGSS (and no other legal rule sets the employer’s liability), the employer’s only duty is to grant leave until full recovery, provided the recovery happens within the periods indicated, and to pay half the wage:
| Continuous work before the illness | Half wage for |
|---|---|
| More than 2 months and less than 6 | 1 month |
| 6 months or more, less than 9 | 2 months |
| 9 months or more | 3 months |
The employer may hire a temporary replacement and let that person go without liability when the worker returns (Art. 67, last paragraph).
Total (Art. 68): neither works nor pays
Causes: (a) unpaid leave agreed by employer and worker; (b) the Art. 66 b) illness once the half-wage periods have run out; (c) provisional detention, simple imprisonment or minor arrest. For provisional detention, the rule applies only if the detention is followed by an order that reverses it, an acquittal, or release on bail, and only when the offence is not alleged against the employer, the employer’s relatives or representatives, or their interests. In case (c), the worker must tell the employer within five days after detention starts and return to work within two days after release; otherwise the employer can end the contract without liability for either side, unless the suspension must continue under Art. 66 b) (illness).
No dismissal without just cause (Art. 69)
While an individual suspension lasts, the employer cannot end the contract without just cause; with just cause it can at any time. The worker can resign during the suspension by giving the legal notice, or without notice when there is just cause. For the difference, see termination with and without cause.
Collective suspension
Partial (Art. 70)
- (a) A legally declared strike whose causes the labor courts attributed to the employer.
- (b) The cases of Articles 251 and 252, second paragraph.
- (c) Lack of raw material attributable to the employer, as declared by the labor courts (the courts set the back pay owed).
- (d) Any Article 71 cause where the employer agreed, before or after, to pay the wages in part or in full during the suspension.
Total (Art. 71)
Both sides are released without liability when the cause is:
- (a) a legally declared strike not attributed to the employer;
- (b) a legally declared lockout;
- (c) lack of raw material not attributable to the employer;
- (d) the employer’s death or incapacity, when it necessarily, immediately and directly stops the work;
- (e) other cases of force majeure or fortuitous events that necessarily, immediately and directly stop the work.
For (c), (d) and (e), Article 72 lets the Executive, through an agreement issued by the Ministry of Labor, set emergency measures to relieve the workers’ economic situation without harming the employers’ interests.
The 3-day rule and the Inspectorate (Art. 73)
A collective suspension, partial or total, takes effect:
- Strike or lockout: from the day it happens, if it happens within the Code’s terms.
- Every other cause: from the end of the day of the event, provided the employer starts, before the Inspección General de Trabajo, the full proof of the cause within the three days after it.
If the Inspectorate concludes the cause does not exist or the suspension is unjustified, it must reject the request, so that workers can end their contracts with liability for the employer. The Ministry’s 2020 page for the procedure said that only the Inspectorate’s resolution counts as authorization of a suspension.
The Ministry of Labor is at 7a. Avenida 3-33, zona 9, Edificio Torre Empresarial, Guatemala City; its 2020 website listed PBX 2422-2501/02/03 and the labor queries and complaints line 1511.
After three months, and going back to work (Arts. 74 and 75)
- Strike or lockout: Articles 240 and 247 apply during the suspension.
- Other causes: contracts can be ended once more than three months have passed since the suspension began, if the employer pays each worker the benefits of Articles 82 or 84 that apply, or the workers give the legal notice. Severance math: severance calculator.
- Resuming work: the employer must notify the Inspectorate. Workers who do not show up within fifteen days after the Inspectorate receives the written notice have their contracts ended without liability for either side. The Inspectorate informs the workers; anyone it cannot locate within three days is notified by a notice published three times in a row in the official gazette and in a large private newspaper, and the fifteen days run from the first publication.
The 2020 COVID procedure (Acuerdo Ministerial 140-2020)
The Ministry of Labor’s agreement 140-2020, signed on 23 March 2020 and published in the Diario de Centro América on 7 April 2020, set up an online procedure before the Inspectorate for collective suspensions:
- Temporary by its own text (Arts. 1-2): only while the COVID-19 pandemic circumstances lasted.
- Online form and PDF documents (Art. 4): signed form; list of workers with the reason for suspension, CUI, bank account or mobile number, job and suspension date; ID of the employer or legal representative; IGSS employer number with the last payroll filed and paid, where it applied; and, for employers with fewer than 3 workers, each worker’s name, CUI and full wage.
- 2 business days to fix gaps after electronic notice, or the request was treated as abandoned (Art. 4, VI).
- Individual suspensions agreed by both sides were reported to the Inspectorate, not authorized (Art. 5).
- Decision within 5 business days (Art. 8), notified electronically.
Status in 2026: on 24 September 2026 the Ministry of Labor’s page in the tramites.gob.gt catalogue linked 33 services, and no service listed on that page mentions suspension of contracts. We have no official source on whether the 2020 platform still runs; confirm with the Inspección General de Trabajo before relying on 2020-2021 guides.
Related
- Labor complaint to MINTRAB: if a suspension is used to stop paying you
- Termination with and without cause
- Severance calculator
- RECIT: registering employment contracts
- Work shifts in Guatemala
General information on Guatemala’s Labor Code, not legal advice. Employers facing a collective suspension should confirm the current procedure with the Inspección General de Trabajo and a labor lawyer.