Labor Hours Flexibility (Due COVID-19)
The Ministry of Labor has issued a regulation with guidelines for the reduction, modification or emergent interruption of work during the State of Emergency.
First and foremost, the regulation establishes: these guidelines are applicable to the private sector. In order to guarantee the job security of workers, it will the responsibility of the private employer, to adopt the reduction, modification or emergent interruption of work without distinction, applicable to activities, groups or workplaces.
Reduction: during the declared health emergency and for a period no longer than six months (renewable for up to six months), it will be agreed to adopt the reduction of the working day hours referred to in the Labor Code, due to the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19).
Modification: During the declared health emergency, the employer may, in order to protect the activities and / or production, modify the working hours of their employees in a sudden manner, including work on Saturdays and Sundays.
Interruption: For all those work activities that given their nature are impossible to benefit from teleworking and / or the reduction or emergent modification of the working day, the employer will arrange and communicate the emerging interruption of work, without this implying the end of the employment relationship.
The recovery of working days will be carried out once the declaration of a health emergency is finished with all the rights and obligations in force before the emergent interruption of the working day.
The employer will determine the way and schedule to compensate for the not worked hours, which might be three hours a day on the days following the reactivation of economic activity or up to four hours on Saturdays. Workers whose days were interrupted will have the obligation to compensate the missed days.
No extra or overtime hours will be applied during the recovery period of missed days. The employees who do not accept the recovery schedule, will not receive the corresponding remuneration or will return to the employer what they have received as compensation during the emergent interruption time.
The recovery time will not start until the end of the period of emergent interruption of work, even if they have not been able to carry out the activities.
Registration of the given guidelines: During the declared health emergency, the reduction, modification or emergency interruption of the working day will be applied as follows: The employer must fill out and register the form the can be found on the SUT platform. The Regional Director of Labor and the Public Service will issue the respective electronic authorization through said platform.
The employer will communicate to its workers, by any available means, the reduction, modification or interruption of the working day and the estimated time of the emergent measures.
Termination: The Emergent Workdays will conclude by agreement of both parties or when the state of emergency ends.
Here is the original document in spanish
The EcuaAssist team
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