translated from Spanish: Teleworking for caregivers: Working Committee of the Chamber of Deputies approved a bill that establishes remote modality in case of State of Emergency

The bill promoted by the Senate, in which Senators Marcela Sabat (RN), Carolina Goic (DC), Adriana Muñoz (PPD), Ena Von Baer (UDI) and Carmen Gloria Aravena (IND), would modify the Labor Code which would add an article that incorporates the employer’s obligation to offer its workers the option of teleworking for the personal care of their children under 12 years of age and/or people with disabilities, without reducing their salaries. 
It is also added that both the mother and the father have the care of the child and the disabled person, either of them, at the choice of the mother, may make use of this prerogative. The bill also indicates that if the President of the Republic declares a constitutional state of emergency of catastrophe and measures are adopted that involve the closure of basic education establishments or prevent assistance, the law on teleworking will be applied.
For Marcela Sabat (RN) the initiative highlights the importance of care, being a project “requested by thousands of mothers”. While the bill was well received in the discussion, there was criticism from parliamentarians for not including the public sector in the bill. “If it were designed for the public sector, a financial report would have to be made because it would involve costs,” said The Undersecretary of Social Security, Pedro Pizarro.
In this way, Deputy Gael Yeomans (CS) and Deputy Marcelo Diaz (IND) maintained that “there are issues related to teleworking that are not regulated” and that teleworking as such does not exist in the public sector, therefore, they proposed that this concept be replaced by “remote work”. 
The project was dispatched to the courtroom and will be discussed in the coming days.

Original source in Spanish