We invite you to read the column written by our senior associate of Grupo Laboral, Felipe Neira, who addressed the figures of audits and fines issued by the Labor Directorate one year after the 40 Hours Law.
One year after the gradual entry into force of the “40-Hour Law”, it is relevant to make a quantitative analysis of the inspections and fines issued by the Labor Directorate (DT) as a result of the supervigilance regarding its (non)compliance by employers.
Thus, it should be noted that, according to the information provided by the Labor Directorate itself, between April 26, 2024 and February 28, 2025, a total of 18,699 inspections were carried out -at national level- that had as a cause an eventual infringement to the 40-hour Law, among which 52.1% (9,749 inspections) were focused on the Metropolitan Region. This was followed by the Valparaíso Region with 8.2% (1,536 inspections) and, in third place, the Los Lagos Region with 5.6% (1,059 inspections).
On this point, it is important to highlight the preference that this service gave to the inspection of this matter, which is in line with the fulfillment of the plan established for the purpose of verifying the gradual reduction of this law by the employers.
Regarding the number of matters sanctioned by the DT for violation of this law, it is worth noting that the most sanctioned matter (424 fines) was related to “exceeding the ordinary weekly workday of 44 hours”, followed by 150 fines for “unilaterally adjusting the workday to 44 hours per week” and, in third place, 146 fines were applied for “adjusting the workday without respecting the proportional progressiveness of its reduction”.
In summary, it would appear that this service placed emphasis on sanctioning the most basic aspects of this law, fundamentally related to verifying effective compliance with the gradual reduction from 45 to 44 hours per week for an ordinary workday, as well as the fact of having to reach an agreement with the worker to make the 60-minute reduction, together with the requirement that this reduction must be proportional within the weekly workday.
Regarding this last matter, it should be noted that a total of $528,070,227 was accumulated for fines, many of which presumably came from the application of Opinion No. 235/08 which established, for purposes of the reduction of the first hour of the workday, the following: “in the case of a workday from Monday to Friday (…) the employer must reduce at least one hour at the end of the workday on any of the 5 days that are part of the weekly workday”.
However, it is worth mentioning that this criterion is quite rejected by our lower courts, as well as by the Superior Courts of Justice, which have attributed an arbitrary character to this ruling, since it is not based on the provisions of the law, repeatedly proceeding to leave without effect the fines issued by the DT when they are based on the fact that the employer did not respect the progressive and proportional reduction of the working day.
Finally, with respect to the amount of money that was sanctioned by the TD for this alleged violation of the legal regulations contained in this law, theoretically – at least – that reported to the Treasury, during the period between April 26, 2024 and February 28, 2025, the sum of $2,702,255,814, that is, practically 2.7 million dollars, a quite significant amount for employers, which seems to be an effective method for the purpose of complying with the provisions mandated by this law.
In short, these data allow us to identify the matters most inspected and sanctioned by the labor authority, as well as the criteria upheld by the courts in those cases that have been prosecuted due to disputes between employers and the Labor Directorate regarding the application of a certain sanction by said service.
Column written by:
Felipe Neira | Senior Associate Labor Group | fneira@az.cl
