The closing shift: who closes a restaurant, and until when

Closing is the most badly planned shift, because two different times get confused: when the kitchen closes and when the restaurant is actually closed. In between there is cleaning, cashing up, setting up for the next day and the last table that won't leave. And for restaurants, Chilean law has a specific rule for the night before a day off.

Kitchen close and closing the restaurant

• Kitchen close: the time of the last order.
• Closing the restaurant: when the last person turns off the lights. Usually one or two hours later.

Whoever closes stays until the restaurant is closed. Counting someone as "closing" because they were there when the kitchen closed is the mistake that leaves one person alone cleaning at one in the morning.

Different closing times are different shifts

If the restaurant closes at 00:30 Monday to Wednesday and at 01:30 Thursday to Saturday, those are two closing shifts, not one. Using the 00:30 one on a Friday leaves an hour uncovered; using the 01:30 one on a Monday pays for an hour nobody needs.

And closing is sized like opening: only the minimum needed stays. The rest of the dinner team can leave after the peak, when the kitchen closes.

The night before a day off

For hotels, restaurants, pubs, bars and nightclubs, the law sets a cut-off time on the day before a rest day:

…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 up to three hours later, paid at a 100% surcharge; followed by at least 33 continuous hours of rest. For whoever plans, this changes how closes are handed out:

• A close that ends after 00:00 shouldn't fall on the night before that person's day off. If it does, it has to be a justified case, never past 03:00, and those hours are paid at a 100% surcharge.
• That shift is followed by at least 33 continuous hours of rest. A close ending at 00:00 on Saturday leaves the person off until at least 09:00 on Monday.
• The practical way: a closer's day off goes after an early shift, not after a close.

The weekly rest guide explains the rest of the rest-day rules.

From closing to opening

The Labour Code sets no general minimum number of hours between two shifts for restaurants. Even so, having the same person close at 01:30 and open at 09:30 the next day is bad practice: they sleep little, open tired, and it is the combination that drives the most turnover. Treat it as something to avoid unless there is no other option.

How Batuta handles it

In Batuta a shift counts as closing only if it reaches the restaurant's close, and each closing time has its own shift. The engine avoids pairing a close with the next day's opening, and when the schedule is reviewed it checks the 33 hours of rest around every day off.