Chile: Interpretation of the Labour Directorate of the 40-Hour Law

On the first few days of this month, the Labour Directorate issued three rulings that establish the meaning and scope of some relevant aspects of the “40-Hour Law.”

These expected interpretations still provide little light on the practical problems that may arise in the implementation of the law, such as the distribution of the workday in a cycle of up to four weeks, the time band for working parents, overtime compensation, and the system of registration and control of attendance, among others. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the Labour Directorate interpreted the grounds for exclusion from the limitation of the working day as follows:

1. Those workers excluded for holding positions of trust or high responsibility, indicating that only those persons who hold positions of representation of the employer, such as the manager, the administrator, and in general, the person who habitually exercises management or administrative functions, would be in this case.
2. In relation to workers without immediate superior supervision due to the nature of the work performed, the authority emphasized that the criterion of geographical location is no longer considered applicable since there is a remote attendance control system. In consequence, this situation should only be limited to services or functions that, by their nature, are not considered to be of a specific nature.