Chile: Reinforcement to the maternity protection rules due to sanitary emergencies decreed by the Chilean State

The new Law 21,260 enacted as a result of the health emergency of Covid-19, incorporates a new final paragraph to Article 202 of the Labor Code, which establishes as an employer’s duty to offer pregnant employees the modality of distance work or teleworking, without reduction of their remuneration in case of health emergency. The new regulation arises as a way of giving protection to pregnant employees, to the extent that the nature of their functions allow it and the employee consents to it, each time the authority decrees a health alert due to an epidemic or other contagious disease.

On the other hand, the Law allows, during the same period, the simultaneous issuance of medical leaves due to a serious illness of the child under one year of age and the extension of the maternal immunity, whose term occurs during the validity of the referred constitutional state of exception.

The new text seeks to reinforce the maternity protection rules contemplated in our legal system, which obeys the constitutional duty of the State of Chile to protect individuals and families, as well as the provisions of International Conventions ratified by Chile.

Cariola Díez Pérez-Cotapos attorneys are available to assist you with these and other workplace issues. For more information on these articles or any other issues involving labour and employment matters in Chile, please contact Ricardo Tisi (Partner) of Cariola Díez Pérez-Cotapos at rtisi@cariola.cl or visit www.cariola.cl.

For more information please contact Joseph Granato, Communications Manager at L&E Global at joseph.granato@leglobal.org.