Chile: Six key Karin’s Law requirements for employers

DLA Piper - On August 1, 2024, Karin’s Law will take effect in Chile. This legislation makes changes to the Labor Code and other legal frameworks concerning sexual and workplace harassment and introduces the concept of workplace violence. The law places new requirements on employers, with a focus on preventing, investigating, and penalizing harassment and violent behavior.

Key changes and obligations include:

Expansion of the limits of discrimination and harassment. The law broadens the definition of workplace harassment to include any kind of aggression or harassment that may "undermine, mistreat or humiliate a person or affect his or her employment status or employment opportunities." 

Reporting channels. The law requires employers to implement formal mechanisms so that workers can report workplace and sexual harassment and violence.

Protocol for the prevention of sexual harassment, labor harassment, and violence at work. Employers are obligated to draft, publish, and implement a protocol containing the guidelines established by the Superintendence for Social Security and the administrative bodies of the occupational accident and occupational disease insurance companies to which they are affiliated.

Employer risk assessment matrices. The law requires employers to review and update their risk assessment matrices to include an outline of Acts of Violence in the Workplace and other concepts introduced by the law.

Internal rules of order, hygiene, and safety. Employers are required to modify their internal regulations to: 

• Incorporate the Prevention Protocol
   
• Adjust investigation procedures, and
   
• Expand the definitions of discrimination, harassment, and violence.

These updates must be made available at least 30 days in advance of their workplace implementation.

Worker training. Employers must conduct internal trainings with the following objectives: 

• At a general level, fostering a work culture free of harassment and violence
   
• At the management level, developing an understanding of how to identify risk factors and how to provide initial support to affected workers and
   
• At the management level and human resources level, ensuring compliance with the law, the prevention of risks established and the implementation of new investigation procedures.

For more information, please contact authors Luis Parada and Diego González.

DLA Piper Chile