Chile: Court sets a precedent on Rest Periods

Chilean Court sets a precedent on the relevance of rest periods of employees and the responsibility of the employer in the protection of this right. 

Recently, the Sixth Civil Court of Santiago partially accepted a claim for moral damages raised by the children and husband of an employee, who died in a traffic accident while she was traveling to perform her duties as a marine biologist, employed in the south of Chile. Although the worker died due to a polytraumatism, this event was declared as a labour accident because the employee was under an excessive workday schedule and had not taken vacation, accruing a total of 51 pending vacation days.

The Court considered that the excess of working hours and the lack of vacation grounded a condition of fatigue that caused the accident and subsequent death of the employee.

The verdict is a very relevant precedent, since it highlights the importance of workers’ rest and the employer’s responsibility to avoid these kinds of accidents, granting the corresponding rest/vacation periods.

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