Meal breaks in a Chilean restaurant: do they count as working time?

The meal break (colación) is the half hour that separates the time someone spends at the restaurant from the time they work. It looks like a detail, but it decides how many paid hours each shift has, and therefore whether a contract is filled, falls short or creates overtime.

What the law says

La jornada de trabajo se dividirá en dos partes, dejándose entre ellas, a lo menos, el tiempo de media hora para la colación. Este período intermedio no se considerará trabajado para computar la duración de la jornada diaria.

• At least half an hour. It is a minimum.
• It does not count as working time, unless agreed otherwise (see below).
• It cannot be stretched at will. The Labour Directorate has said the break cannot exceed what is reasonable for eating, and cannot be lengthened for reasons unrelated to eating, such as how busy the restaurant is. That is what the article 34 bis interruption agreement is for.

Presence versus paid hours

The practical consequence is that the schedule has two numbers per shift, and both matter:

If a schedule adds up hours end to end, every shift shows half an hour too many. In a six-shift week that is three hours that don't exist: someone who appears to be on 45 hours is really on 42.

The paid meal break

Both sides can agree, expressly or tacitly, that the meal break forms part of the working day. The Labour Directorate recognises this in Dictamen 745/38 of 2025. In that case the break is paid and counts as working time.

Two consequences from the same dictamen:

• If the benefit comes from the individual contract, it can only be changed by mutual agreement.
• The 40-hour law reduction cannot be taken out of the meal break. It applies at the start or the end of the working day.

Part-time

For part-time contracts the law sets a range: the daily schedule must be continuous and can only be interrupted by the meal break, which must last between half an hour and an hour (article 40 bis A).

The long break: interrupting the working day

A restaurant that wants a break of several hours between lunch and dinner cannot get it by stretching the meal break. It has to use the article 34 bis agreement, which allows interrupting the day for more than half an hour and up to four, with a written agreement, payment for the time beyond half an hour, and transport there and back. The full conditions are in the guide to the working day.

When to give it

The law does not say at what time the meal break must be. The practice that works in a restaurant is to always give it outside the peaks: before lunch, in the quiet afternoon between lunch and dinner, or before dinner starts. That way the floor is full when it is needed most.

How Batuta handles it

In Batuta every shift in the catalogue shows its paid hours with the meal break already deducted, and the meal break's length is configurable per restaurant. Every hour total, contract check and cost uses that figure, never end-to-end presence.