Job insecurity in Chile
It is not enough to cover the daily bread.
When we talk about job insecurity, we are talking about unfair working conditions, low or insufficient salaries, low training that leads to higher accident rates, lack of social protection (social security), not being able to exercise rights such as medical leave and vacations.
It is by obtaining work that one gains access to the social security system, which includes pensions, unemployment insurance, the health system, coverage and protection against illness or work accidents.
The precarious are women and men, who have no power to negotiate, nor to modify unfair conditions imposed unilaterally by the employer.
It has been shown that job insecurity is a public health issue, since it affects mood, self-esteem, affects skills and abilities, self-confidence, and ultimately depression.
In addition, research has described that women with precarious jobs have a higher risk of sexual harassment.
Precariousness is a pandemic that is difficult to control, since the State, as a regulatory body, cannot or does not want to modify and sanction these behaviours, according to the doctrine applied by the government in power, which allows us to learn through the press about the undignified situation of workers working without heating, in the midst of a polar cold wave that is affecting the country.
The lack of defence of labour rights
37 years are not enough for the Law of the worker and the workers Nª18.620 to achieve every day that its principles of good faith, protection and non-waivable labour rights to salary, work day, rest days, vacations and bonus, are violated by some employers in an arbitrary and unjustified manner.
Added to the lack of labour inspectors to ensure the proper maintenance of hygiene and safety in the tasks. (Art. 184 of the Labor Code).
Labour legislation
It is often thought that recent advances and changes in Chilean labour legislation (the Law on the Reconciliation of Personal, Family and Work Life, the 40-Hour Law, Unemployment Insurance, Increase in the Minimum Wage, Law against Workplace Harassment, etc.) go hand in hand with the protection of workers. However, Chilean labour legislation presents enormous gaps between what is established by law and what happens in practice, since its lack of clarity and complexity causes confusion and difficulties in its interpretation and application.
Some of the elements that contribute to this inapplicability are the inequality established between dependent and independent workers, insufficient protection for vulnerable workers such as temporary, subcontracted or fee-based workers, difficulties in processing claims and processes that, due to their slowness and excessive bureaucracy, end up discouraging workers from exercising their rights, the lack of effective oversight and weakness in the application of sanctions for employers who fail to comply with the laws, outdated legislation that does not allow us
to address the challenges of the modern labour market (remote work, for example), the existing lack of knowledge about labour laws and workers’ rights, a culture of impunity where there is a perception that there are no consequences for failing to comply with them, the permanent practice of employers to reduce costs and increase their profits, and we cannot fail to mention the corruption that is established between the public administration and economic groups to “save” these issues.
Currently, the least complied with labour law in Chile by employers is the 40 Hour Law, since its gradual implementation over a period of 5 years has generated challenges for its effective compliance; and in practice it is the longed-for labour flexibility pursued for decades by employers, which not even Piñera dared to legislate. Likewise, the Law on the Reconciliation of Personal, Family and Work Life, the Unemployment Insurance Law and the Labor Outsourcing Law are also not effectively complied with.
Weak State action in the inspection of abuses
In a 2023 survey by the company Vertical Hunter – in which men and women participated – it was found that 70.1% of those interviewed claimed to have been victims of workplace harassment at some point in their professional life, while 29.9% responded that they had never experienced such a situation.
According to the statistics provided by the Labor Directorate in the same year, for example, between 2020-2021, there were 1,560 complaints, and in 2022, there were 1,267 and of them, 64% were female and 36% male, “therefore, the trend continues to name the female gender as the most exposed to this type of environment” said Elisa Ansoleaga, Research Director of the UDP Faculty of Psychology, in an interview with LT digital.
If the percentages are compared with the number of reported cases, the state’s weakness in identifying and protecting workers is evident. More so if one takes into account that the data does not reflect the situation of workers in informal jobs, who are the vast majority.
Proposal on the labour issue
Job insecurity goes hand in hand with labour flexibility that perpetuates abuse and constant mistreatment of the working class by employers.
We propose a fair and balanced relationship between capital and labour, which leads to the creation of a new labour code with broad participation of the world of workers, with a strong unionization campaign at a national level (Chile has very low unionization percentages), improved wages, allowing collective bargaining by branches, that workers through a representative participate in the administration having a representative on the board of directors of the company, social security, elimination of AFPs, participatory ownership of workers, association and
cooperativism in the creation of companies and ventures and a State that supports and fulfils its role.
In short, moving towards participatory ownership of the workers of the company, when these enter into crisis or do not comply with the new labor justice laws.
Collaborative writing by Ricardo Lisboa Henríquez; M. Angelica Alvear Montecinos; Guillermo Garces Parada; Sandra Arriola Oporto; Cesar Anguita Sanhueza and Paola Zottele. Public Opinion Commission