translated from Spanish: Festivities Homelands: companies that do not respect inalienable holidays are exposed to fines of almost 3 million pesos

The Directorate of Labour (DT) will monitor throughout the country the compliance with the compulsory and indispensable holiday of trade workers on Wednesday 18 and Thursday 19 September. This was reported during this day by the Undersecretary of Labour, Fernando Arab, together with the National Deputy Director of Labour, Camila Jordán, and the seremi of the Metropolitan Region, Denisse Madrid.
The audit will ensure the beginning of the holiday at 21 hours on Tuesday 17 and its end at 06 hours on Friday 20, and the granting of rest every two years to workers excepted for the holiday.
“The call to employers is to respect the unmissable holiday of trade and workers to enforce their rights,” said the Undersecretary Arab, who also explained that the audits will respond to complaints entered on the site www.direcciondeltrabajo.cl, in a banner enabled between 18:00 hours on September 17 and 14:00 on the 19th.
In this regard, he added that “if there is one thing we cannot tolerate it is that there are workers who are entitled to a deserved rest and that there are employers who make them work illegally, therefore, we will be applying the utmost rigour of the Law and the maximum amount of fines.”
With regard to the holiday of 20 September, Arab noted that it is not a mandatory and indispensable holiday, therefore, trade can function normally.
For her part, the deputy director of the work, Camila Jordán, explained that “there is a campaign that has been going on for more than ten years and in this decade there has been an improvement and compliance with this regulation in an important way; so we reiterate the call for employers to comply with these regulations and grant rest to their workers, because it is indeed a standard that has been met in a very good way in time.”
Meanwhile, the Seremi Denisse Madrid, noted that “in the country there are more than 1 million 600 thousand people working in the trade sector, where about 50% are women, so this break from Fiestas Patrias is more than deserved so that they can celebrate this date as a family so i for the country.”
Sanctions
Those who do not comply with this holiday will be exposed to penalties ranging from 5 UTM ($245,655) to 20 UTM ($982,620) for each worker affected by the infringement, taking into account the total workers of the company.
In the meantime, employers caught in violation must immediately allow their workers to leave their place of work, without prejudice to receiving the respective fine.
The only worker caught in violation who will not be able to leave his place of work will be the pharmaceutical chemist in shift or emergency pharmacies.
Commercial premises served by their own owners and/or family members will be exempt from this rule because there is no employment relationship in this case.
With respect to trade that does not respect the start and end times of the holiday you will receive fines ranging from 10 UTM ($491,310) to 60 UTM ($2,947,860) per company, and those who do not meet this alternating break to the workers who worked on it the previous year’s holiday, they will receive fines ranging from 5 UTM ($245,655) to 20 UTM ($982,620) for each worker affected by the violation.
Favoured workers
All trade workers shall be deemed to be those who work in such an establishment and whose functions relate to the export or direct sale to the public of the goods or products.
Except for those who work in clubs and restaurants; entertainment establishments, such as cinemas, live shows, nightclubs, pub, cabaret; commercial premises at public civil airfields and airports; legally authorized gaming casinos and other venues; fuel scan, emergency pharmacies and pharmacies that must serve shifts set by the health authority. They should also work dependents of “convenience stores” attached to the servicenters if they sell prepared food right there.
As compensation, since 2016 there is a rule that workers excepted for the holiday will have the right to take rest at least once every two years if they continue to be hired by the same employer, being able to agree with him the turnover of staff for this The end.
Last year’s balance sheet
At the 2018 Festivities, the Labour Directorate carried out a total of 48 audits throughout the country. Of these, 71% ended in fines totaling $44,829,200.
The most punished offence was not to grant the mandatory and indispensable holiday, with 25 sanctions, that is, 74% of the total sanctions.