Chile: Labour protection for employees rendering services in the public sector

On 19 December 2019, the Supreme Court rejected an appeal for the unification of jurisprudence and confirmed the sentence that granted the labour protection claim filed by a government employee, who had been dismissed for political discrimination by the municipality of San Miguel.

Therefore, the right to labour protection of public sector employees was once again ratified. Furthermore, the Supreme Court recognised the right of government employees to file complaints before the courts regarding, for example, arbitrary dismissal for political reasons or harassment at work, a right that had been revoked by the Constitutional Court.

For the latter, in December 2018, in an unprecedented ruling, a request for non-application presented by the municipality of San Miguel was accepted by the Constitutional Court. In this sense, it was determined that public officials were not entitled to labour protection.

The recent ruling of 19 December 2019, in a unanimous decision of the highest court, ruled that the Constitutional Court’s decision in this matter was not effective in practice.

Moreover, while the possibility of government employees being able to benefit from the labour protection procedure is in no way recognising the application of substantive standards of the Labour Code, there is no doubt that they are empowered to use the employment protection procedures to denounce the violation of their ‘essential rights’ suffered as a result of their contractual relationship with government entities.