2024-04-22 22:40:37
Pablo Zenteno, director of Labor, came out to clarify that the reduction of working hours in minutes can be applied, pointing out that for this there must be an agreement between the employer and workers.
The implementation of the 40 Hour Law is in its final stretch and has been marked by changes in criteria that the Labor Directorate has established for its implementation this April 26, where it will go from 45 working hours a week to 44.
This, since groups such as the Unitary Central of Workers (CUT) denounced that The companies were applying this hourly reduction in minutes, That is, in a five-day work week, the working day was reduced by 12 minutes.
These organizations went further and accused that, in order to comply with the 40 Hour Law, some companies were even increasing snack hours.
Faced with this situation, the Labor Directorate explained this Thursday the 18th that “In the case of a day from Monday to Friday, on April 26, 2024, the employer must reduce the daily work day by at least one hour in one of the 5 days that are part of the weekly work day.”
In the event that the working day is extended from Monday to Saturday, “the employer must reduce at least 50 minutes in one daily shift and a fraction of 10 minutes in another, in one of the 6 days that are part of the weekly shift.”
The annoyance of the business community due to the 40 Hour Law
This clarification from the Labor Directorate, established in opinion 235/08, It generated immediate rejection from the Santiago Chamber of Commerce, which accused “an imposition” by the public on how to apply the reduction. of one weekly working hour in the 40 Hour Law.
María Teresa Vial, president of the CCS, indicated in a public statement that “the DT interprets the reduction of the maximum weekly working day restrictively, limiting it to a total reduction of 1 hourwhose main objective is the adaptation of the business structure to this legal modification, on 1 day a week, considering that the Law itself does not establish that distinction.
“It could even be considered contrary to the gradualness with which the law is intended to be implemented, which was precisely one of the main negotiations and agreements of the processing, since for the specific day on which the reduction materializes, there will not, in practice, any gradualness,” Vial added.
New flip? DT explains in which cases the reduction in minutes does apply
In the face of criticism, Pablo Zenteno, director of Labor, came out to clarify that the reduction of working hours in minutes can be applied, pointing out that for this there must be an agreement between the employer and workers.
In an interview with CNN Chile, Zenteno assured that “In Chile we do not have a working day of minutes, and, therefore, the logical thing, being consistent (…) is that the hour be reduced. If there is no agreement, it is possible to look for another alternative, because the law also provides wide margins to the will of the parties.”
“When there is an agreement, the parties are the ones who have to determine how this reduction will be made.”said the director of Labor, who expressed his reservations about applying a 12-minute reduction.
“Imagine 12 minutes a day, if this reduction for workers makes any sense, just in getting to the subway, just in getting to the bus, what it takes me to take the subway, in the breaks between one train and another, I’m going to lose those 12 minutes,” he lamented.