How the 40-hour law is implemented

The Minister of Labor and Social Welfare, Jeannette Jara, said that “both employers, workers and the Government, at the time of implementation starting on April 26, must be aware of how this change is occurring in companies. It has been a law with a lot of social legitimacy and in its implementation we all also have to be clear about how this should be carried out.” The opinion was released that specifies proportionality in the reduction of working hours. Among other things, it is noted that for those who work six days, from Monday to Saturday, the opinion maintains that “the employer must reduce at least 50 minutes in one daily shift and a fraction of 10 minutes in another.”

Santiago. 18/4/2024. The Ministry of Labor and Social Security provided precise details on the implementation of 40 hours as a weekly work day.

The head of the portfolio, Jeannette Jara, together with the national director of Labor, Pablo Zenteno, released an opinion that specifies the proportionality in the reduction of the working day, contemplated in the 40 Hours Law and whose implementation comes into force next Friday April 26.

The Law contemplates a gradual decrease in working hours, so that, after the first reduction this year to 44 hours, in April 2026 42 hours will be reached. In the same month of 2028, the law will fully enter into force, when the 40 hours of work per week are implemented.

It was specified that the new opinion refers to the possibility that employers and workers do not reach an agreement regarding the application of the reduction in hours.

In this situation, it was indicated that with the law in full force, in 2028, the employer must reduce the working day by at least one hour each day, if its workers work five days a week.

In the case of what will happen between April 26, 2024 and April 25, 2026, the opinion indicates that “in the case of a day from Monday to Friday, on April 26, 2024 the employer must reduce at least one hour the daily shift in one of the 5 days that are part of the weekly shift.

Likewise, in the case of a 6-day weekly shift, from Monday to Saturday, the opinion maintains that “the employer must reduce at least 50 minutes in one daily shift and the fraction of 10 minutes in another, in one of the 6 days that are part of the weekly schedule.”

Minister Jeannette Jara explained that the 40 Hour Law “is deeply felt and demanded by citizens. It was built based on a tripartite agreement between employers, workers and the Government. And today, before its implementation begins on April 26, we have detected queries, concerns and complaints about how some would be thinking about implementing it through daily minutes. That is what this opinion of the Labor Directorate establishes and circumscribes.”

“It has to do with something very essential, which is why we want this law and how we should honor the agreement we reached. For this reason, both employers, workers and the Government, at the time of implementation starting on April 26, must be aware of how this change is occurring in companies. “It has been a law with a lot of social legitimacy and in its implementation we all also have to be clear about how this should be carried out,” he added.

Meanwhile, the director of Labor stated that the opinion “clarifies the specific formula that the employer must use to adjust the daily work day, with the purpose of obtaining its weekly reduction in the event of no agreement with the workers. workers or union organizations by virtue of the provisions of articles 1 and 3 transitory of Law 21,561, which establish a rule of graduality and proportionality respectively in the terms of this report.

The opinion explains that the law establishes, in its third transitional article, the formula for reducing the weekly working day, whether or not there is an agreement between the employer and its workers or unions.

In the case of prior agreement, the opinion recalls that the parties will determine the way to distribute the reduction in working hours according to the sequence of years established by law in the first transitional article, referring to the established graduality of 5 years. However, it maintains that nothing prevents the parties themselves from being able to advance the moment in which the reduction should occur; That is, they can agree, from now on, to reduce it to 40 hours, voluntarily and without waiting for gradualness.

If there is no prior agreement, the opinion reminds that it will be the employer who must apply the proportional adjustment of the working day according to the criteria established in the opinion known today.

Finally, among the foundations for specifying the reduction formula, the DT’s statement refers to the parliamentary debate that culminated in the promulgation of Law 21,561.

In this regard, it mentions that “whatever the distribution of the working day each week, the legislator hopes that this reduction will materialize in effective rest in one day by the workers, which will generate more free time to share with the workers.” families each day, an aspect that must be materialized even in the event of disagreement under the terms of the third transitory article of Law 21,561, which mandates copulative compliance with the new legal limits of 40 hours for the purposes of distributing the reduction in working hours and considering in the decrease from 45 to 40 hours the periodicity established in the first transitional article of the law.”