Chile: New Law regulates Services rendered from Digital Platforms, such as Uber, Cabify or Cornershop
Authors: Ricardo Tisi and Bárbara Zlatar
On 11 March 2022, Law No. 21,431 (the ‘Law’) was published in the Official Gazette, which incorporates into the Labour Code, new regulations applicable to employees performing services from digital platforms.
The Law defines the concepts of a “digital platform company” and “digital platform employees”, accepting both dependent and independent categories of employees, contingent upon whether or not there is a services provision under factual labour subordination and dependency.
Dependent employees have an employment contract that must set forth certain minimum requirements, such as the method of calculating the remuneration, work schedule and rest periods.
In case of independent employees, they must have a Services Agreement, not governed by the labour statute, but containing some minimum legal provisions, such as 12 hours of disconnection in a 24-hour period and the right of access to social security coverage, paying contributions, as may apply.
In the case of a dependent or independent digital platform employee, the remuneration shall be calculated per hour actually worked and this cannot be less than the proportion of the minimum monthly legal wage, increased by 20%.
The relevance and innovation of the Law is that it regulates the labour relationship which exists between digital platform workers and their employers. In fact, it requires the employer to inform the employee about the services offered, protect the employee´s private data, train them in safety and health conditions, provide them with protective materials and transit insurance to cover damages with regard to the transportation tools that they use.
Key Action Points for Human Resources and In-house Counsel
The Law will enter into force on 7 September 2022 and gives companies until 11 March 2025 to comply with the legal mandate that at least 85% of their employees are required to be Chilean nationals, except in case of companies with less than 25 employees.
