On 29 January, Chile’s Upper House Labour Committee approved, by four votes to one, a piece of draft legislation under general review that looks to reduce the weekly working week from 45 hours down to 40. Submitted to parliament by two Communist Party members in 2017, the text has seen a resurgence in interest both by the house and in society at large, thanks to the efforts of vigorous social mobilization. Backed by majority public opinion, and advocated by the parliamentary opposition, the issue has been under intense negotiations with Sebastián Piñera’s government and several economic sectors. Parliament’s deputies approved the draft bill in November 2019, and now the Senate Labour Committee must vote upon it, legal article by legal article, before it passes to a Senate plenary session.
This particular phase in the text’s route to the statute books is only expected to be completed in April, with a two month delay (February and March) intended by the Labour Committee Senators thus giving time to introduce any modifications to the draft text’s articles.
Flexible working time, a key government focus. Intense debate has in fact been continuing between those supporting the text on the one hand (left-wing opposition as well as the Christian Democrat UDI) and on the other hand, Sebast
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