Chilean Labour Law - Overtime And How It Works!

One of the areas that we consistently see foreign companies operating in Chile struggle with is understanding labour laws and how they are applied. In a country like Chile, where courts tend to be pro-worker, it is essential for management teams understand the laws in order to minimise risk.

One such area is overtime...

Generally speaking, the maximum working hours are 45 hours a week from Monday to Friday or Saturday depending on the work schedule. The manner in which these hours are divided is decided by the employer, however, no employee can work more than 12 hours a day, this includes overtime hours. So the maximum "ordinary" hours can be 10 hours a day, and one can agree with the worker additional working hours a day that cannot exceed 2 hours within the same day, bringing the total for each day to a maximum of 12 working hours. In addition, overtime can only be agreed on a temporary basis, which cannot exceed a total of 3 continuous months. Furthermore, the