Chile: widespread social unrest drives the unhindered passage through parliament of draft legislation lowering weekly working hours to 40

Draft legislation that sets the legal working week at 40 hours (down from 45 currently) is making its way through Chile’s Parliament (for more on the text and associated debate c.f. Article No. 11428). Following approval on 23 October 2019 by the opposition-led Chamber of Deputies of the principle of a reduction in working time, the Labor Committee had just unanimously validated the principle of gradually implementing the future legislation. SMEs (with annual revenues of under 75,000 Investment Units (Unidades de Fomento), or CLP 2,000 million (approximately €2.5 million)) will have five years within which to implement the law. Large companies will have one year. “Thanks to what is happening on our streets, even the right-wing parliamentarians and those who have vilified the draft voted in favor,” enthused one of the law’s authors, the Communist parliamentarian, Camila Vallejo, in reference to the large-scale ongoing social unrest that shows no sign of faltering and that has forced President Sebastián Piñera’s (liberal right) government to change tack. Thus the new Labor Minister, María José Zaldívar has affirmed a willingness to ‘seek a balance’ and ‘respond to society’s demand for more income and a better quality of life.’ The text, as well as its amendments over the gradual implementation principle now has to be approved by a full plenary Chamber of Deputies before advancing to its second reading in the Senate, which is also opposition-led.