Chile Employment Law

Employees with more than one year of continuous service will be entitled to an annual holiday of 15 working days, with full remuneration. The holiday cannot be compensated in money. Every employee, with ten years of work, for one or more employers, continuous or not, will be entitled to an additional day of holiday for every three years worked, and this excess will be susceptible to negotiation via individual or collective agreement.

Employees who provide services in the Twelfth Region of Magallanes and Antartica Chilean, in the Eleventh Region of Aysén of General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo, and in the Province of Palena, will be entitled to an annual holiday of 20 working days.

For the purposes of the holiday, Saturday will always be considered non-working. The holiday must be continuous, but the excess in 10 business days may be split by mutual agreement.

Accrual of annual vacation – Vacation time can be accrued for up to 2 consecutive years. An employer whose employee has accumulated 2 consecutive years of holidays, must grant at least half of the holiday before completing the year that entitled the employee to a new period.

During the holiday, the monthly remuneration will be constituted by the fixed salary in the case of employees subject to the fixed payment system. In the case of employees with variable remuneration (deals, commissions, bonus, etc), the remuneration will be the average of earnings in the last three months worked.

Timing of vacation – The annual vacation will be granted preferably in spring or summer, considering the needs of the service.

Payment on Termination

If the employee, having the necessary requirements to make use of the holiday, exits the company due to any circumstance, the employer must compensate him for the time that he would have been entitled to as a holiday.

However, the employee whose contract ends before completing the year of service that entitles a holiday will receive compensation for that benefit, equivalent to the full remuneration calculated in proportion to the time that elapses between his hiring or the date he found out the last annuity and the term of their functions. Labour Code, art 67-73 (last amended 2021).

Effective August 1, 2022, the minimum wage in Chile is 400,000 Chilean pesos.

Female employees will be entitled to a maternity break of 6 weeks before delivery and 12 weeks after delivery. If the birth occurs after six weeks after the date on which the woman had begun the maternity leave, the Prenatal rest will be extended until the delivery. When delivery occurs before the thirty-third week of gestation, or if the child at birth weighs less than 1,500 grams, the postnatal rest will be 18 weeks.

If as a consequence of the delivery there is a disease proven with a certificate, which prevents returning to work for a period longer than postnatal rest, the duration may be extended. In the case of deliveries of two or more children, the postnatal rest period shall be increased by 7 consecutive days for each child born after the second.

If both parents are employees, either of them, at the mother’s choice, may enjoy the parental postnatal leave, from the 7th week, for the number of weeks that the mother indicates. If the mother died in childbirth or during the period of leave after it, said leave or the rest of it that is given to the mother of the child will be granted to the father or to whom it is granted custody of the minor.

Pay

The payment for maternity leave is made by the Social Security system and not by the employer. There is an additional permit of 12 weeks (during which female employees will receive the same subsidy of the pre – and postnatal maternity leave) that starts immediately after the termination of postnatal maternity leave. Female employees may choose between this new permit or working half of their ordinary working hours for 18 weeks (part-time) In latter case, the subsidy granted by the Social Security System is reduced to 50% of its salary and the employer must pay, at least, 50% of the remuneration set forth in the labor agreement and all variable remuneration to which she is entitled.  Likewise, the mother may benefit the father of the child by granting him part of the parental postnatal leave. In this case, the subsidy will be paid according to the salary of the father.

The employees will have the right to have at least 1 hour a day, to feed their children under two years of age. This right may be exercised in any of the following forms to be agreed with the employer:

• • • At any time during the working day
    • Dividing it, at the request of the interested party, into two portions.
    • Postponing or advancing by half an hour, or an hour, the beginning or end of the day of work.

The time consumed for the purpose of breastfeeding shall be considered as working time and cannot be in any case, waived by the employees who have children under the age of 2 years. Labour Code, art 195-208 (last amended 2021).

The father will be entitled to a paid leave of 5 days in the event of the birth of a child, which may be used at his choice from the moment of delivery, and in this case will be continuous, excluding the weekly rest, or distributed within the first month from the date of birth. This permission will also be granted to the father who is in the process of adoption and will be counted from the notification of the resolution granting personal care or foster the adoption of the child. Labour Code, art 199 (last amended 2021).

Employee mother with a child under 1 year of age dealing with serious illness shall be allowed to take leave and allowance in cases of prenatal, postnatal, and paternal postnatal leaves, during the period prescribed by the health service. This right shall extend to the spouse or civil partner. If both parents are entitled, it would be the mother’s choice, as to who would be entitled.

Employee (both the father and mother) with a child older than 1 year and below 18 years, who has suffered from a serious accident or life-threatening illness, shall be entitled to a paid leave of absence for the number of hours equivalent to 10 working days per year, distributed at the employee’s choice in full, partial or combined days. Labour Code, art 199 bis (last amended 2021).

When the spouse, the civil partner, the father, or the mother of the employee are in a terminal state, the employee may be provided with 10 working days of paid leave with the means of a medical certificate. Labour Code, art 199 bis (last amended 2021).

There is no annual limit on the number of days of sick leave that an employee can take, this will depend on the medical license extended by the doctor. Supreme Decree No. 44 of 1978 (last amended 2021).

If women, single men, or widowers are interested in adopting a child, such employee shall be entitled to a period of 1 year of unpaid adoption leave, from the date when the court grants the adoptive parents the custody of the child. If the minor is less than 6 months old the parent is entitled to an allowance for adoption for a period of 12 weeks.

Paternity leave will also be granted to the father who is in the process of adoption and will be counted from the notification of the resolution granting personal care or welcome the adoption of the child. Labour Code, art 201 (last amended 2021).

In the event of contracting marriage or entering into a civil union agreement, every employee shall be entitled to 5 continuous working days of paid leave, in addition to the annual holiday, regardless of the time of service. Labour Code, art 207 bis (last amended 2021).

Employees are entitled to 7 calendar days of paid bereavement leave for the death of a child or spouse/civil partner. This is in addition to annual leave and may be taken regardless of time worked. In the case of the death of a parent, the employee is entitled to 3 business days’ leave from the date of death. If an unborn child dies, any employee (male or female) is entitled to 3 business days’ leave from the date when death is confirmed with the appropriate fetal death certificate. There is one-month tenure protection for employees who suffer the death of a child or spouse beginning from the date of death. Labour Code, art 66 (last amended 2021).

Female employees over 40 years of age and older and male employees over the age of 50 who are employed for a term greater than 30 days, will have the right to half a day’s leave, once a year during the term of the employment relationship, to undergo mammography and prostate examinations, respectively, and may include other benefits of preventive medicine, such as a pap smear, in public health institutions or private institution.

The time required for taking such examinations will be considered as hours worked by an employee, and permits for such leave cannot be compensated in money even after the termination of employment. Labour Code, art 66 bis (last amended 2021).

In the cases of public vaccination programs or campaigns for the control and prevention of communicable diseases, all employees shall be entitled to half a day’s leave for vaccination. Labour Code, art 66(bis) (last amended 2021).

An employee retains the right to the job without pay while doing military service or being part of the mobilized national reserves. However, Employers are required to pay regular wages to reserve personnel called to service for less than 30 days. Labour Code, art 66 158 (last amended 2021).