Short answer. Yes. Article 1727 of the Civil Code states plainly that "the contractor is responsible for the work done by persons employed by him." The contractor cannot shift blame for damage caused by his own crew onto those individual workers; responsibility for what they do on the job stays with the contractor who hired them.
What the law says
The contractor is responsible for the work done by persons employed by him.
Civil Code, Article 1727 — Contractor's Responsibility for His Workers. Read the full provision →
A short article with a clear rule
Article 1727 states, in full, that the contractor is responsible for the work done by persons employed by him. Despite its brevity, the rule is direct: when a contractor takes on a job, he answers for what the people he brought onto that job actually do, including damage they cause while carrying it out. You dealt with the contractor when you engaged the work, and the article keeps the responsibility there.
Why the contractor cannot point to the individual worker
As the person who employed the workers and directed the job, the contractor is in control of who is on site, how they are supervised, and how the work is carried out. Article 1727 places responsibility on the contractor rather than requiring the property owner to identify and pursue whichever individual worker actually caused the damage — a burden that would often be impossible for someone who was not present to manage the crew.
This sits alongside the contractor's duty to do the work properly
This responsibility for the workers' conduct is part of a broader set of obligations a contractor carries under a contract for a piece of work — alongside duties about the quality of the finished work itself. Damage the workers cause while performing the job, and defects in what they produce, both trace back to the contractor as the party who took on the undertaking and brought the labor force onto your property.
Article 1723 shows how far that responsibility can run in construction: where a building collapses within fifteen years of completion because of defects in the construction or the use of materials of inferior quality, the contractor answers for the damages, while the engineer or architect who drew up the plans answers for defects in those plans or in the ground. Responsibility is allocated by whose part of the job went wrong.
What to document if damage occurs
Photograph the damage as soon as you notice it, note the date and which crew was on site, and keep any contract or work order identifying the contractor. Written notice to the contractor describing the damage and what you expect in response creates a record. If the contractor disputes responsibility or refuses to act, bring that documentation to a lawyer to assess your options under the contract and the law.
It is worth being clear about what Article 1727 settles and what it leaves open. It fixes the contractor's responsibility to you; it does not make you the workers' employer, and it does not stop the contractor from recovering internally from whoever was at fault. Where the damage was done to someone outside the contract, the quasi-delict rules apply as well, and Article 2180 makes employers answerable for damage caused by their employees in the service of the branches in which they are employed.