The Ministry of Labor issued guidelines for the implementation of the emergency reduction of working hours established in the COVID-19 Humanitarian Support Law[1]. The ministerial agreement establishes:
- For the purposes of the emergency reduction of working hours, the events in Article 30 of the Civil Code shall be considered acts of God or force majeure. An example is “cases where unforeseen events that could not have been predicted make it impossible to carry out work normally and consequently workers’ ordinary or partial working hours must be reduced.”
- The working day may be reduced by up to 50%.
- Only one form of reduction may be applied regarding workers’ ordinary or partial working hours.
- Workers’ remuneration shall be paid according to the hours effectively worked as set out in the reduction. The remuneration cannot be less than 55% of the amount established before the reduction.
- Social security contributions shall be paid in proportion to the hours established in the reduced working day.
- Statutory benefits, such as additional remuneration, holidays, reserve funds, and profits, shall be paid according to the hours established in the reduction.
- The reduction may be applied for up to one year from registration and may be renewed only once for the same period.
- When the reduction period ends, workers shall return to the working hours and remuneration established before the reduction.
- Employers must register the reduction in the official Work System (SUT) and notify employees of the reduction and its duration by any means available.
- The emergency reduction of working hours cannot be applied to workers who already have a reduced working day. The reduction established in the Humanitarian Law may only be applied from the moment the reduced workday is no longer in effect or has expired in accordance with article 47.1 of the Work Code, which includes those who carried out the process established in Ministerial Agreement No. 77 regarding the health emergency.
- In the event of dismissal, the compensations, severance bonuses and other statutory benefits shall be calculated based on the last remuneration received by the worker before the reduction.
- The Ministry of Labor shall provide the SRI and corporate control entities with the list of companies and the fiscal period in which the emergency reduction is in force.
[1] Ministerial Agreement No. MDT-2020-133, signed on July 15, 2020.
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