Living in your employer's home: how many hours you work, and when you can go out

Many live-in workers are asked to work «24/7» — to be always available, because they live in the same house as the person they care for. That way of working does not exist in the contract. Someone who sleeps where they work has set hours, breaks and a rest day, exactly like someone who goes home in the evening.

The rules are in the CCNL Colf e Badanti 2025–2028, signed on 28 October 2025 by FIDALDO and DOMINA — the employers' associations — with FILCAMS CGIL, FISASCAT CISL, UILTUCS and FEDERCOLF.

The exact name matters. More than one collective agreement exists for domestic work and they look alike, so we always say which one we mean: this is the one whose minimum rates are updated every year by the commission that meets at the Ministry of Labour. The official text is in the CNEL contract archive.

It applies to colf, badanti, baby sitters and every other kind of domestic work. The article numbers are given below, so you can show them to the person who employs you.

How many hours, at most

If you are convivente — you sleep in the house where you work: a maximum of 10 hours a day, not consecutive, up to 54 hours a week.

If you are not live-in: a maximum of 8 hours a day, not consecutive, and 40 hours a week, spread over five or six days.

«Not consecutive» is the key phrase: the hours must be broken up during the day, not stacked one after the other.

There is a separate case. A live-in worker graded at level B, B super or C can also be hired for up to 30 hours a week, with the whole schedule inside a single band: 6.00 to 14.00, or 14.00 to 22.00, or concentrated into no more than three days. The pay then comes from a different table (Table B), and the agreement must be written and signed by both sides. The amounts in that table are in the article on the 2026 minimum rates.

Eleven hours of rest, and two hours when you can go out

This is the part almost nobody knows. It is article 14, paragraph 4, quoted in full:

«A live-in worker is entitled to a rest of at least 11 consecutive hours within the same day and, if the daily schedule does not fall entirely between 6.00 and 14.00 or between 14.00 and 22.00, to an unpaid mid-day rest, normally in the afternoon, of no less than 2 hours of actual rest. During that rest the worker may leave the employer's home.»

In plain words: every day you are owed eleven unbroken hours away from work, and in the middle of the day at least two hours of real break — and in those two hours you may leave the house. It is not permission you have to ask for: it is written in the contract. The two hours are unpaid, because they are not work.

A little further on the same article adds something related: washing, resting and looking after your own things happen outside working hours (paragraph 7). So they do not count as your break.

Sunday is not for sale

Weekly rest is 36 hours for live-in workers: 24 of them must fall on Sunday, the other 12 on another agreed day. For workers who are not live-in it is 24 hours, on Sunday.

The contract uses a blunt word: Sunday rest cannot be waived (art. 13, paragraph 3). That means you cannot give it up even by agreeing to, and not in exchange for money either.

If a genuine emergency — something unforeseeable, not the ordinary running of the house — means you are asked to work on a Sunday, you are owed two things together:

• The same number of rest hours the next day. If you worked three hours on Sunday, on Monday you do not work those three hours. It is not time off to be negotiated: it is owed.
• Those hours paid with a 60 % increase, because they are overtime. Sunday is not a working day: working it is by definition outside the norm, and what falls outside the norm is paid more. The other increases are further down, under «Extra hours are paid».

If your religion observes a day other than Sunday, the rest day can be moved by agreement, with full effect (art. 13, paragraph 4).

If you are asked to stay in the house at night

Being in the house at night and working at night are two different things, and the contract pays them differently.

• Night presence (art. 11): you are there simply to be there, and the whole presence falls between 21.00 and 8.00. It is paid from its own table, and your employer is obliged to let you sleep, in suitable accommodation. If during the night you are asked to do anything beyond being present, those hours are paid on top, by the hour.
• Discontinuous night care (art. 10): you are hired specifically to assist someone at night, between 20.00 and 8.00. This too has its own table, and 11 consecutive hours of rest in every twenty-four remain guaranteed.

In both cases the hiring must be in writing, stating the start and end time.

Extra hours are paid, and the rate is written down

Work beyond your hours is overtime, and as a rule it must be requested at least one day in advance (art. 15, paragraph 5). The increases are:

• +25 % between 6.00 and 22.00;
• +50 % between 22.00 and 6.00;
• +60 % on a Sunday or a public holiday;
• +10 % for workers who are not live-in, on the 41st to 44th hour of the week, if worked between 6.00 and 22.00.

Separately, night work inside normal hours — between 22.00 and 6.00 — is paid with a 20 % increase (art. 14, paragraph 6).

If your job does not look like this

If what you have just read is the opposite of your days — no break, no Sunday, nobody counting the hours — you are not the only one, and it is not something to sort out alone.

Two things you can do straight away:

• Write your hours down. A notebook with the date, the time you start and the time you finish is worth far more than memory. It helps you see how many hours you actually do, and it helps anyone who later looks at your case.
• Have your payslip read by a patronato or a trade union. It is free, and it is what they do for a living.

Bahay Italia is not a patronato and does not do the sums for you: it explains how the rules work, so that when you go to someone you already know what to ask.

Not sure about your own case? Ask in the Work section of the community: we answer there, and the answer stays available to anyone with the same problem.