The law emphasizes the new role to be adopted by employers, transforming them into active agents in promoting work-life balance.
On December 29, 2023, a law was published in the Diario Oficial that aims to reconcile the personal, family and work life of workers.
This new regulatory framework, which will enter into force 60 days after its publication in the Diario Oficial, modifies the Labor Code with the main objective of establishing a series of benefits for those persons who have the personal care of a child under fourteen years of age or who are responsible for the care of a person with disabilities or in a situation of severe or moderate dependency without receiving remuneration for such activity.
Thus, this new law grants to persons who can prove to be in any of the situations already mentioned and to the extent that they comply with the requirements for each of them, preference to be granted vacations or the temporary modification of shifts or of the distribution of the daily and weekly workday during this same period during the vacation period established by the Ministry of Education and the possibility that they may – to the extent that the nature of their functions allows it-, to develop their work under the modality of teleworking or distance work, excluding from this last benefit only those persons who have the power to represent the employer such as managers, assistant managers, agents or attorneys-in-fact.
Likewise, this initiative establishes that Title II of the Labor Code, which is currently called “Protection of maternity, paternity and family life” and which with the amendments of this new law will be renamed “Protection of maternity and paternity and the reconciliation of personal, family and work life”, will be governed by a series of principles, which must be applied in accordance with the responsibilities and faculties that the Code recognizes to the employers, being these principles positive parenthood, social co-responsibility and protection of maternity and paternity, which are incorporated in Article 194 of the Labor Code as follows:
“Article 194. – This Title shall be governed by the principle of positive parenthood, which includes the practical capacities and functions of the responsible adults to care for, protect, educate and ensure the healthy development of their children; the principle of social co-responsibility, which includes the promotion in society of the reconciliation of personal, family and work life, especially for workers who perform unpaid care work, and the principle of protection of maternity and paternity, promoting equal opportunities and treatment between women and men, seeking to preserve both the health and well-being of children and their parents. These principles shall always be applied in accordance with the responsibilities and powers of administration that this Code recognizes to the employer“.
Finally, and beyond these specific measures, it is interesting to note that this law establishes a new role for employers, as it transforms them into active agents in the promotion of work-life balance, imposing on them the obligation, as stated in the bill, to “inform, educate and raise awareness of the importance of reconciling personal, family and work life”.
For more information on these topics, please contact our #azLabor group:
Jorge Arredondo | Partner | jarredondo@az.cl
Jocelyn Aros | Senior Associate | jaros@az.cl
Felipe Neira | Associate | fneira@az.cl
Palmira Valdivia | Associate | pvaldivia@az.cl
