CHILE Law and Practice Contributed by: Constanza Contreras, Gabriela Muñoz and Juan Francisco Reyes, SCR Abogados
may be renewed once, but the total duration, including the renewal, must not exceed one year. In the case of managers and employees with a professional or technical qualification from a higher-education institu - tion, a fixed-term contract may have a duration of up to two years. Again, one renewal is permitted but the total duration, including that of the renewal, must not exceed of two years. If an employee works non-continuously for the same employer under more than one fixed-term contract for a period of 12 months or more within a 15-month period (starting at the beginning of the first contract), the employee is considered to have an open-ended contract with the employer. An employee on a fixed- term contract is also considered to have an open- ended contract with the employer if: (i) the employee continues to work for the employer (with the employ - er’s knowledge) after the end of the term of the fixed- term contract; or (ii) the contract is renewed more than once. 1.3 Working Hours The general rule is that the statutory maximum work - ing hours per week is currently 44 hours, which may be distributed over no more than six days and no fewer than five days, with a daily limit of ten working hours. Employers are required to maintain a system for recording each employee’s working hours. These limitations shall not apply to: • managers, administrators and legal representatives vested with managerial authority; • individuals who, due to the nature of their duties, perform their work without immediate supervision; and • employees engaged in work on board fishing ves - sels. Such employees are not required to sign the daily attendance registry, and their exemption must be expressly stipulated in their employment contracts. Moreover, the 44-hour weekly limit may be extended under specific and exceptional circumstances provid - ed for by law, and additional shifts may be authorised for roles which, due to their nature, must operate on a continuous basis.
Only employees subject to a working schedule are entitled to overtime payments. An employee will have worked overtime if their worked hours during a week exceed the agreed working hours or the legal maxi - mum hours per week, whichever is lower. Overtime hours must be paid with a 50% surcharge together with the employee’s salary. As of April 2024, maximum working hours will be grad - ually reduced until reaching a maximum of 40 hours per week by the year 2028. The new work schedule allows the distribution of the weekly maximum over four days, compensation of overtime with periods of rest and the distribution of the monthly work schedule in weekly averages of 40 hours, among other alterna - tives. Part-time employment contracts are those in which the employee works no more than 30 hours per week. Part-time employment contracts are subject to the general rules set forth in the Labour Code, except in respect of Minimum Monthly Income (to be calculated proportionally, as it is based on a standard workweek), Statutory Profit Sharing (the maximum cap of 4.75 times the monthly minimum wage may be reduced proportionally according to the ratio between the hours agreed in the part-time contract and those of a full-time ordinary workweek) and severance per years of service (a special method is used to calculate this indemnity). Working mothers and fathers of children up to 12 years of age, as well as those who have the personal care of such children, shall be entitled, in so far as their duties allow, to a flexible daily period of two hours in total, within which they may advance or delay the start of their work by up to one hour, thereby also determining the end-of-day departure time. Special rules apply to some aspects of the working time of employees in specific sectors such as retail, hotels and restaurants, public transport and fishing. Additionally, special distribution systems may be authorised depending on the specific characteristics of the worksite.
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