Can I give clothing to the cleaners to clean for me on Shabbos?

There are two kinds of gentile work on Shabbos discussed in halacha: (1) Sechirus – being paid for the time (hour or day). This is always forbidden, since the non-Jew is being paid for working on Shabbos. (2) Kablanus – being paid for the job. In this case, he is working for the result, and it’s his choice when to do the work.

Hiring a kablan is permitted provided one doesn’t specifically instruct him to perform the work on Shabbos, and the timeframe specified allows him the option of doing the work before or after Shabbos as well.

What about a dry cleaners or a car mechanic where the customer pays for the task (kablanus) but the ones doing the work are being paid by the hour (sechirus)?

The Alter Rebbe quotes a position that this poses an issue of maris ayin (faulty appearance).¹ Yet, the Mishna Berurah clarifies that this is specifically in a scenario when the money is paid to the workers. However, if paid to the business owner, it is irrelevant how he pays his employees.² It would seem that the Alter Rebbe agrees to this distinction as well.³

Others distinguish between a hired worker, where it may be ascribed to the Yid, and a commercial dry cleaners, where Shabbos onlookers won’t know that the work is being done for a Yid.⁴

It should also be noted that according to the Alter Rebbe in his Mahdura Basra, workers who are salaried per year are considered kablanim (task-based workers).⁵

A worker who is paid for jobs each day is considered a kablan. For example, a delivery person who needs to deliver a certain number of packages that day is considered a task-based worker according to the Alter Rebbe.

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