Senate approves bill that reduces the work week to 40 hours in Chile

The Chilean Senate approved on Tuesday the bill that reduces the weekly working day, from 45 to 40 hours, an initiative that will leave Chili next to Ecuador as the only two countries in the region to have this labor extension.

The bill entered Congress in 2017, and was approved in the High camera by 45 votes in favour, none against and no abstentions.

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For it to become law, all that remains is the ratification of the initiative in the Chamber of Deputieswhich must approve the modifications incorporated in the Senate.

The government is confident that the initiative can become law before next May 1, the international commemoration of Labor Day.

The initiative was presented to Congress by representatives of the communist partyamong them camila vallejocurrent minister spokesperson for the government.

The bill, which was approved by the Chamber of Deputies in its first process, did not initially contemplate gradual implementation, but after passing through the Senate it was established that this change would be made within a period of five years.

In this way, in the period of one year the weekly working day will be 44 hours, it will decrease to 42 in the third year of application of the law and to 40 hours after five years.

The regulations establish that the new extension of the working day may not mean a reduction in the remuneration of employees and the government justifies it so that workers have more time to carry out activities other than work.

In January 2005 Chili applied a first reduction in their weekly working hours, from 48 to 45 hours.

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If this second reduction is approved, Chile will join Ecuador as the only two countries in Latin America to establish by law the 40-hour week. In Argentina, bolivian, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguayan, Peru and Uruguay it’s 48 hours.

Brazil, The Savior, Guatemala and Venezuela have a working day of between 42 and 45 hours a week, according to updated data from the International Labor Organization (ILO).

Latin America is one of the regions in the world where more hours are worked per year and has one of the highest labor informality rates, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Source: Elcomercio

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