Faced with the vote on the bill that reduces the workday to 40 hours per week, the Republican Party announced that as a caucus they will reject the initiative in the Chamber of Deputies. This corresponds to the last legislative procedure for the measure to become law, after being presented six years ago in Congress.
The project, which has great urgency, aims to reduce working hours gradually, according to the party’s parliamentarians, it is a “populist initiative that sooner rather than later will end up harming the vast majority,” said Deputy Juan Irarrázaval.
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For the representatives of the PLR, the project would end up having negative consequences in the long term: “the impact on unemployment could be brutal considering that many SMEs will privilege dispensing with certain jobs in order to comply with future legislation. It is a bad public policy that will leave many families without work, since it directly affects the development of this source of work,” criticized the legislator.
If enacted, the bill amending the Labor Code would be applied by reducing the working day by one hour in the first year from 2024; two hours two years later, and another two years when the total five years are completed. That is, by 2029, people would work 40 hours per week after five years of adaptation.
This gradualness, they have pointed out from the Government, was considered “based on the sense of responsibility with the economy to avoid negative effects on productive activities, the non-affectation to remuneration”.
The final 40 a.m. vote is expected to happen this morning, around 10 a.m. From the ruling party it is expected that it will be approved today to be promulgated on May 1, Labor Day.
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