Do workers’ leaving quarters outside Eretz Yisroel need a mezuzah

I work as a kashruth supervisor for meat slaughterers. Our team does long stints outside Eretz Yisroel. We live in a building close to the factory on the factory grounds. There are some other buildings there outside the factory grounds. Some of the people who live with us work there all the time except holidays. The building we live in belongs to the gentile owner of the factory. We have the keys to all the rooms and we conduct our lives there without any outside intervention. (Factory management has a master key to the rooms.) There are some gentiles who cook in the kitchen and clean, but they have no involvement in our lives beyond their specific tasks. My question concerns the mezuzah. Is this considered a house that a jew rented from a gentile outside Eretz Yisroel, which needs a mezuzah after a jew has lived there for 30 days, or is it as if the jews were simply staying in a gentile’s house, in which case there is no need to affix a mezuzah?

Whether one is defined as “renting from a gentile” and having to put up a mezuzah, or as “living in a gentile’s house”, and being exempt from having to affix a mezuzah, depends on the following question. Does the jew have to right to stay in the house for a fixed period of time, or does the gentile have a right to expel him any moment he wants.

Now, concerning your specific question: if your contract does specify that you have a right to stay in the factory dormitory for a specific period of time, then all rooms need mezuzoth. On the other hand, if the contract says that the factory has to provide you with a place to sleep, but it can decide to put you up in different quarters every night, then this is not rent. This is considered staying in a gentile’s house.

From what I see after reading your question, it seems that this is a long-term arrangement and a stable workplace. It looks like this living arrangement should be defined as “rent”, and, therefore, you need a mezuzah.

Wishing you success in all your endeavors 

Shulchan Oruch, section Yore Dea, ch. 286, §23