Workers accused that the company was going to reprimand, sanction and deduct salaries for those who wanted to vote on Saturday.
It is October 26 and 27 will be carried out Municipal and Regional Elections 2024where only Sunday will be a non-waivable holiday. This means that commerce will not function normally, since the holiday applies to malls, strip centers and stores that are governed by the same company name or legal personality. Due to the above, it will only serve businesses that are outside these premises.
In this sense, workers who must perform their job duties during both days of the elections will have three hours to go vote or excuse yourselfand furthermore, They will be able to choose with complete autonomy the day to do it. “
“All of the above, without remuneration discounts or penalties“, they specified from the Directorate of Labor (DT) through an opinion on the labor standards prevailing in the election of governors, regional councillors, mayors and councillors.
However, retail workers have reported that this regulation would not be respected. Specifically, from the H&M store union they accuse that the employeer would be conditioning them to vote on Sunday, Therefore, their autonomy to exercise their vote on the day they deem appropriate would be affected.
In addition to this, they maintain that those who If they do not comply with these “conditions”, they will be given permission, but not paid, which is against the law.
Complaints from H&M workers in the context of the elections
“The person in charge of Labor Relations at the Latam level told us that this Saturday, October 26, the day of the elections, they were going to issue letters of reprimand, they were going to issue sanctions and a discount in the remuneration of workers who wanted to make use of their right. constitutional that day, instead of doing it on Sunday,” Yosselin Aramundiz, director of the H&M union, began by telling EL DÍNAMO.
Given this, the union sent the opinion published by the DT, which emphasizes that workers can autonomously choose the day to vote.
“The company asked employees to justify by email why they want to vote on Saturday. and that he justification of all these workers was going to be subject to evaluation. There the company was going to send a list to define who are the people who can actually go to vote on Saturday and who cannot,” Aramundiz explained.
Considering the above, the director of the H&M union commented that “the employer is totally focused on hindering the constitutional right and fundamental for workers to be able to exercise their autonomous right to vote on the day they want.”
Along these lines, the group of store workers accused: “They are only going to give permission to those who sent the email (justifying their decision), they are going to be given paid leave, so that they do not have a discount on their salary, but the people who have not requested that leave will be given it but without remuneration.”
“It is not just H&M but it is the entire business that is suffering from this violation of the fundamental rights of workers, in addition to the fact that we are under pressure with harassment, we are being intimidated,” concluded Yosselin Aramundiz, alluding to the fact that in other department stores the same occurs. same situation in the context of the elections.
During the day this Wednesday, a team from the Labor Directorate, led by the regional director, Carolina Campos, carried out an inspection after the complaint from the H&M Chile Union, where they recalled that “an opinion was issued clarifying that Workers who must work during the elections will have three hours to vote or excuse themselves, autonomously choosing the day to do it.”
H&M’s response after workers’ complaint
As a result of the complaint that was filed with the Labor Department, H&M Chile issued a statement stating that “the company has not prevented or hindered workers from going to vote on October 26, nor has it mentioned the possibility of salary deductions or fines in that context. Although the Labor Directorate visited our stores following a complaint made by the union, the minutes do not include the aforementioned issue.”
Along these lines, they maintained that “the workers who had assigned schedules for Saturday, October 27 and Sunday, October 28 were consulted about what day they would vote, but The question was asked for the sole purpose of organizing schedules and work, to ensure that our stores operated efficiently during the electoral process.both for staff and clients.”
“In that sense, we take very seriously ensuring that all employees fulfill their civic duty,” they said from H&M.