CHILE Law and Practice Contributed by: Constanza Contreras, Gabriela Muñoz and Juan Francisco Reyes, SCR Abogados
SCR Abogados Nueva Tajamar 555
Office 1901 Las Condes Santiago Chile
Tel: +56 226 048 321 Email: contacto@scr.cl Web: www.scr.cl
1. Employment Terms 1.1 Employee Status There is no distinction between blue-collar and white- collar workers in Chile. 1.2 Employment Contracts Although an employment contract may be deemed to exist without a written agreement, the employment statute requires that contracts must be in writing. Employment contracts must be signed by both the employer and the employee. An employer must ensure that there is a written agree - ment in place within 15 days counted from the date on which the employee starts working (five days in the case of contracts with a term of less than 30 days). The agreement should be registered at the Labour Bureau website within 15 days, or the employer will face a fine. Absence of a written employment agree - ment will result in a fine and a presumption in favour of the employee: the terms of the employment con - tract will be understood to be those indicated by the employee (unless the employer can prove otherwise). Employment contracts must contain the following statutory provisions: • place and date of the contract; • identification of the parties, including nationality, address, email, and the worker’s date of birth and date of employment; • description of the nature of the services and the location or city where they are to be performed
– the contract may specify two or more specific duties, whether alternative or supplementary; • amount, method and frequency of payment of the agreed remuneration; • duration and distribution of the working hours, except in the case of shift systems, in which case working hours must be regulated in the internal regulations; • term of the contract; • any other agreements between the parties (eg, other monetary benefits); • additional benefits provided by the employer, such as housing, electricity, fuel, food, or other in-kind benefits or services; and • when a worker is required to change residence for employment, the place of origin must be recorded. The employer must retain a physical (hard) copy of all employment-related documentation for each employee. The retention period shall correspond to the statutory limitation period applicable to employ - ment-related claims. Open-ended employment contracts are the general rule, although fixed-term contracts and contracts to perform a particular task or service (that is, task- or project-based contracts) are permitted. All employ - ment contracts must state their term and, unless the contract is explicitly for a fixed term or to perform a particular task or service, the term is considered to be open-ended. For most employees, the duration of a fixed-term con - tract must not exceed one year. A fixed-term contract
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