Weekly rest in a Chilean restaurant: the compensatory day and the 33 hours

Because a restaurant works on Sunday, the law asks it to compensate that Sunday with another rest day. It sounds simple, but there are rules on when that rest starts, how long it lasts and what happens with holidays, and one of them is specific to restaurants and bars.

One rest day for each Sunday worked

Las empresas exceptuadas del descanso dominical deberán otorgar un día de descanso a la semana en compensación a las actividades desarrolladas en día domingo, y otro por cada festivo en que los trabajadores debieron prestar servicios, aplicándose la norma del artículo 36. Estos descansos podrán ser comunes para todos los trabajadores, o por turnos para no paralizar el curso de las labores.

In schedule terms:

• One rest day a week for whoever works on Sunday, and another for each holiday worked.
• It can fall on any day, Sunday included. The Labour Directorate has said both sides can agree it on a day other than the seventh, as long as the week is still spread over five or six days.
• It can rotate: the whole team doesn't need to rest on the same day.
• It is a whole day. The Labour Directorate reads it as a full day: no part of the rest day can be worked.

Two of those rest days a month must also fall on a Sunday. That rule has its own guide: Sundays off.

The 33-hour rule, for restaurants only

In general, rest starts at 21:00 the day before at the latest and ends at 06:00 the day after (article 36). For restaurants, hotels, pubs, bars and nightclubs there is a more precise rule, added in 2016:

En el caso de los trabajadores de hoteles, restaurantes, pubs, bares, discotecas y similares, las labores realizadas en el día anterior a un día de descanso deberán finalizar, a más tardar, a las 00:00 horas. En casos justificados, se podrá traspasar dicho límite hasta en tres horas, las que deberán pagarse con un recargo del cien por ciento sobre el valor de la hora ordinaria correspondiente al sueldo convenido. Con todo, el trabajador deberá tener un descanso no inferior a treinta y tres horas continuas, a partir del término de los servicios en la jornada que antecede a un día de descanso.

Work on the day before a rest day must end by 00:00; in justified cases it can run up to three hours later, paid at a 100% surcharge; and from the end of that shift there must be at least 33 continuous hours of rest. In a real week:

This collides directly with the closing shift: a restaurant that closes at 01:30 cannot have the same person close the night before their day off without a justification and double pay for those hours. The closing shift guide explains how to plan for it.

Holidays

• Each holiday worked earns one additional rest day.
• A holiday that falls while the person is already on their compensatory rest day does not create a new day, according to the Labour Directorate.
• If several rest days pile up in one week, both sides can agree how to spread them or pay those beyond one a week, at no less than the overtime rate (article 38).

The mandatory holidays

1 January, 1 May, 18 and 19 September and 25 December are mandatory, non-waivable holidays for retail workers. Restaurants are exempt from that obligation, but with a condition:

Los trabajadores que, conforme a lo dispuesto en el inciso anterior, se encuentran exceptuados de los descansos allí señalados, tendrán derecho a los mismos, a lo menos, una vez cada dos años respecto de un mismo empleador, pudiendo pactar con este la rotación del personal necesario para este fin.

Each worker is owed each of those days off at least once every two years with the same employer. The Labour Directorate applies it year by year: if someone worked on 25 December, they must have the next 25 December off. The practical way to comply is to rotate the team and keep a record of who worked each of those days.

How Batuta handles it

In Batuta the weekly rest day and Sundays off are rules per contract type. When the schedule is reviewed, every day off is checked against the 33 continuous hours: if the shift before ends late and the one after starts early, it is flagged before publishing.