Chapter Fifth: Execution of Work

Article 624

Article 624 - The hiring of labor or services is the contract by which one of the contracting parties undertakes to place his labor at the service and under the direction of the other in exchange for remuneration that the latter undertakes to pay him. The contract of work or hiring of industry is one by which a person undertakes to accomplish for another determined work, by means of a price calculated according to the importance of the work. The contract by which persons exercising a profession or liberal art ensure their services to their clients, as well as those by which professors undertake to exercise their profession for the benefit of an establishment or a person, is a hiring of industry. The same applies to a contract of transport.

Article 625

Art. 625 - The contracts referred to in the preceding article are perfected by the sole consent of the parties.

Article 626

Art. 626 - The prescribed consent is only valid if the parties have the capacity to bind themselves. The interdicted person and the minor must be assisted or authorized by the persons under whose authority they are placed.

Article 627

Art. 627 - Any agreement whereby a person undertakes to provide their services for their entire life or for a period of such duration that the obligor would be bound until their death is null and void, with absolute nullity.

Article 628

Article 628 - Null, with absolute nullity, is any convention having as its object: 1 - facts physically impossible; 2 - the teaching or accomplishment of occult practices or acts contrary to law, good morals, or public order.

Article 629

Art. 629 - Lawyers and all other persons handling contentious matters may not, either personally or through an intermediary, enter into an agreement with their clients that associates them with the risks of the lawsuit by allocating to them, as fees, a portion of what may be obtained (See Article 69 of Law No. 8 of 11/3/1970, as amended by Law No. 42 of 19/2/1991, which regulates the legal profession).

Article 630

Art. 630 - The price must be determined or determinable.

Article 631

Article 631 - The convention of a wage or price is presumed, unless the contrary results from the circumstances: 1 - in the case of accomplishment of work that it is not customary to perform gratuitously; 2 - When the work falls within the profession of the one who accomplishes it; 3 - When it is a matter of a commercial transaction or a fact accomplished by a merchant in the exercise of his commerce.

Article 632

Art. 632 - In the absence of an agreement, the wage or price of work shall be determined according to custom. If a tariff or scale of fees exists, it shall be applied.

Article 633

Art. 633 - The master or employer is required to pay the salary or price under the conditions stipulated in the contract or by local custom. In the absence of an agreement or custom, the price is only payable following the provision of services or the completion of the work.

Article 634

Article 634 - He who has undertaken to execute work or accomplish certain services has the right to the full wage promised to him if he could not provide his services or accomplish the work due to a cause depending on the person of the person giving the assignment, when he is always held at the disposal of the latter and has not let out his services elsewhere. However, the Tribunal may reduce the stipulated wage according to the circumstances.

Article 643

Art. 643 - The lease of services or industry comes to an end, either: 1 - by the expiration of the agreed-upon time, or the completion of the work; 2 - by the termination pronounced by the judge in the cases determined by law; 3 - By the impossibility of execution resulting from either a case of force majeure, or the death of the lessor, except in the latter case the exceptions established by law. The lease of services or industry is not terminated by the death of the master or the principal.