Chile: New Deadlines for complying with Electronic Labour Registry Obligation

Authors: Ricardo Tisi , Bárbara Zlatar and Ignacia López

On 11 March 2022, Law No. 21,431 (the ‘Law’) was published in the Official Gazette, which incorporates into the On April 30th, 2021, Law No. 21,327 (the Law) came into effect.  Under said law, all employers are required to register certain labour documents in the Electronic Labour Registry (hereinafter, the “Registry”).

In October 2021, Supreme Decree No. 37 was issued. This regulation provided the list of mandatory and voluntary documentation to be included in the Registry.

Said Decree stated the following as mandatory documents to be included in the Registry: (i) employments agreements (ii) addendums and employments agreements terminations (iii) Electronic Payroll Book (iv) constitution and meeting acts of Joint Health and Safety Committee and Bipartite Training Committee (v) Internal Rules of Order, Hygiene and Safety (vi) Special Working Conditions Agreements (vii) Employee’s Disciplinary actions (viii) Collective Labour agreements (ix) Employee Attendance, Vacation Slips and Permits Records.

Lastly, on 28 April 2022, Supreme Decree No. 39 was enacted.  This provided an extension for the employers’ deadline to comply with the Registry until June 2023. This Supreme Decree is currently under review by the Office of the Comptroller General of the Republic and has not yet been issued in the Official Gazette; therefore, although we believe it is unlike, it could be subject to changes.

However, regarding employment agreements executed before 1 October 2021, the Registry should have been made no later than 30 April 2022. This exception is because the deadline regarding these specific documents is provided by Law (which supersede and prevail to any Decree regulation).

Failure to comply with the obligation to register these documents, could expose the employer to fines issued by the Department of Labour.

Key Action Points for Human Resources and In-house Counsel

Electronic registration of labour agreements is already in force.