Part-time work in a Chilean restaurant: what changes under 30 hours

Part-time is the most flexible tool a restaurant has for covering its busiest days without adding full-time contracts. But it has its own rules, and one of them is almost always confused with another.

What part-time is

Se podrán pactar contratos de trabajo con jornada a tiempo parcial, considerándose afectos a la normativa del presente párrafo, aquéllos en que se ha convenido una jornada de trabajo no superior a treinta horas semanales.

Since 26 April 2024 the limit has been a fixed number: 30 hours a week. Before, it was two-thirds of the ordinary schedule, so it moved with it; Ley 21.561 changed that.

Its own rules

• The daily schedule is continuous and cannot exceed 10 hours. It is only interrupted by the meal break, which must last between half an hour and an hour (article 40 bis A).
• Overtime can be agreed. The calculation base cannot be below the monthly minimum wage prorated to the agreed hours. Overtime starts above the contracted schedule: on a 20-hour contract, from hour 21.
• Alternative schedules can be agreed. The contract can set several ways of spreading the week, and the employer chooses which applies with at least one week's notice (article 40 bis C). It is the legal way to get week-to-week flexibility from a part-timer.
• All other rights are the same as full-time (article 40 bis B). The exception is the legal bonus (gratificación), whose cap can be reduced proportionally.

The Sundays confusion

This is the most frequent mistake. The rule of two Sundays off a month and the seven additional Sundays a year do not apply to people on twenty weekly hours or less, nor to people hired only for Saturdays, Sundays or holidays.

A 30-hour worker is part-time and still gets their two Sundays. Treating all part-time work as exempt is an infringement that is easy to commit and easy to spot.

The surcharge of at least 30% on ordinary Sunday hours, on the other hand, applies to every restaurant worker, whatever their schedule.

What it is good for in the schedule

Part-time works best for what full-time contracts don't cover well:

• Weekends, when demand rises and full-timers already have to spread their Sundays off.
• Short peaks, like a Friday lunch, that don't justify a ten-hour shift.
• Replacing the hours lost to the 40-hour law, without adding a full-time contract.

An hourly contract, by contrast, is paid for every hour worked: it is the restaurant's most direct variable cost, best used only where coverage demands it.

How Batuta handles it

In Batuta each contract type has its weekly hours and its own rest rules, including whether it carries the minimum of Sundays off. That lets you set up a 30-hour contract with its Sundays and a 20-hour one without them, instead of assuming all part-time works the same way.