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Alan is right, and this is troubling unrest. Obviously the maid and the gardener have been talking. Once they start an issue with you, they will never forget. It is difficult to find good people, but I would rather face that challenge than the other impending problems, so now is a good time to start weaning.

General question do those who have household help, like maids and gardeners. İf your worker notifies you of a day off for medical appointment or illness, do you pay them? İf so, how many times do you do this per year? Mi In the past, whenever my gardener advised me in advance of an appointment, he would ask to switch workdays at my home, which was fine. A few times over the course of the year i would pay him, nevertheless, even if he didn't work. However, the last few times he had not made up the missed days (he always takes the entire day). He is averaging missing one day a month, that is, 1 out of 12 workdays. He is reliable and a good worker. This most recent time he showed me his cita, appointment notification, and I told him no problem. However, after I asked him if he would prefer to switch days or not be paid for his time/day off, he became upset and blew up at me. According to him, workers in Mexico have the right to be paid for doctors appointments and medical leave. I asked if he knew how many paid sick days or doctor appointments were allowed per year. He did not know, but told me that is a law i need to check on. This brings me back to my housekeeper, who wants IMSS, which means I become her employer. Although I want to do the right thing for her, I think by becoming her employer I lose a lot of my rights, and my gardener will want equal treatment for himself, and then suddenly I am running a business out of my home (with all the paperwork involved) which is the exact opposite of what I wanted when I retired. As a side question: why am I having these issues with my workers? I have had them for under a year, I retained them when I bought the house. I understand the previous homeowner who had them was scared to say no (she spoke no Spanish) and was very lenient. I have asked friends and neighbors and most are similar in mindset, they "let it slide" or "don't want to rock the boat". Then there are those on this forum who say we are being taken advantage of and this is not how most domestic workers act. I am confused!

I wouldn't tolerate this behavior. Pay them their finiquito and off they go. Others would be happy to replace them and show you more respect.

Thanks, Bisbee. I am familiar with your gardens and pool, they are the same sizes as mine, except my pool is smaller. Actually, our yard shrank when we put in a small pool, and the gardener insisted he would take care of the pool. After three months we noticed that he was unable to do so, and thus, we hired a pool service. So, his job duties have changed. Nevertheless, he still maintains our yard gardens satisfactorily, as well as the street side of the house, and he trims back large tree limbs as needed, so I need not call a tree service. When it rains we have him sweep the garage, or put the cars in the street to wash them. Sometimes he will leave, as there is truly nothing to do. We pay him, regardless. What I am not liking is how there seems to be some kind of competition between the gardener and housekeeper; if we give him something, like an old wrought iron grate, then the next time we are discarding something, she makes a point of stating that the gardener got it last time, and she would like to have it this time. And vice versa. Its almost like they sibling rivals, but they are both in their 50s! My husband has suggested that we (meaning, me and the gardener, then later, me and the housekeeper) sit down at a table and discuss vacation, sick days, and time off. So the policy of this household is clear. Take it or leave it. Also, do we continue to provide coffee and food for the housekeeper, and sodas for the gardener and his helper? Everyone I have spoken to says they provide drinks and food, as well as freebies, like old TVs and refrigerators, etc. About the gardener blowing up: yes, he became loud and agitated, waving his arms, insisting he is a good person (true)....due in part, I am sure, to his frustration in not knowing the rules of household, as they have been inconsistent between hubby and myself. On the other hand, should we really need to have strict rules?

Trump those people and fire them. Too many available to put up with your experiences with them.

He works 12 days a month. Has no contract with you. Belongs to no unión and has no unión contract you signed so gets nothing when taking the day off for any reason. Unions usually get workers 2 hours off with pay with advance notice and proof for Dr. appointments. Without a signed unión contract it is up to the owner what they want to do in this case, not the worker himself unless it is specified in a personal contract you signed. You are not legally obligated for paying him the day off. IMO

May be time to look for a replacement gardener. But maybe your definition of "blew up at me" is different that what I envision. I have engaged the services of many Mexicans over the years and have never had any of them "blow up at me." Putting that aside, our gardener adjusts his own hours when he misses a day or sometimes leaves early one day and makes it up by working longer. Or not. Sometimes he brings a helper, his relative (we don't pay his helper). We pay our gardener for 10 hours a week whether he works 10 hours or not. The yard looks good and he takes care of our pool...as long as that remains the case, we don't track his hours. We pay him for rain days and I assume everyone does; there were a few weeks last summer when he couldn't do much in heavy downpours. One week he did ask us to deduct a day's pay from his pay when he did not work. If he didn't ask us to short him, we wouldn't have. When he went on vacation last year, beforehand he brought by his "replacement" so we could meet him. He said the man had filled in for him before (like you, we re-hired the previous homeowner's gardener, and yes, we have a copy of the finiquito she paid him). While our gardener was gone, we paid the fill-in what we normally paid our regular gardener. At year's end we paid our gardener his full vacation pay...not sure under those circumstances if we should have or not, but we felt his finding someone to fill in for him was very commendable. I don't know what we would have done if he just announced he was leaving for 2 weeks; it's not like you can easily find substitutes for a short period of time. Maybe it comes down to how happy you are with your workers.

In 12 years I have never had a housecleaner or gardener ask for time off for medical appointments or for IMSS coverage. I don't think you are obliged to pay for sick days but you are obliged to pay for "vacation" days, which most workers never actually take, so maybe you could make the days he takes off his "vacation" days so that you don't have to pay them out at the end of the year with his aguinaldo. Instead he gets that one day a month with pay. I sure hope that when you bought the house the realtors made sure you got finiquitos for the years they worked for the previous owner.