With transversal agreement and support of entrepreneurs, Law of the 40 hours is ready to start operation before May 1

The Chamber of Deputies approved on Tuesday the Senate’s amendments to the 40-hour bill. In this way, after six years of processing, the Corporation sent the initiative to law.
The lower house approved the Senate’s amendments – except for some, which voted separately at the request of a group of deputies – with 127 votes in favor, 14 against and three abstentions.
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The votes against were from the Republican Party, as previously announced. The abstentions were of the deputies Gustavo Benavente, Sergio Bobadilla and Christian Matheson.

The Minister of Labor, Jeannette Jara – one of the great architects of the agreements generated in Congress to approve the project – said that “it has been demonstrated that although some thought it was impossible to advance in a better quality of life for the workers of the country, it can be done.”
“It’s been a long six years for us to get to the 40-hour workday. It is a demand that has been going on for many years,” he added.
Deputies Karol Cariola (PC) and Camila Vallejo (PC, now Minister of Government) presented the project in 2017. The government of President Gabriel Boric reactivated the discussion of the initiative.
The project
The bill covers workers of the Labor Code subject to ordinary working hours and also special ones, such as those of workers in private homes, and exceptional, which are those that require continuous processes, such as mining.
The initiative will be implemented gradually: the reduction will be from 45 to 44 hours in the first year of the law, 42 hours in the third year and 40 hours in the fifth year.
The project contemplates the possibility of implementing a distribution of four days worked by three days of rest, known as 4×3.
In addition, it allows the employer to agree with the worker that the ordinary 40-hour day is fulfilled in an average of up to four weeks, with a maximum of 45 hours per week.

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Original source in Spanish