Great concern regarding five adjustments in the Ecuadorian work hours

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The changes introduced by the National Assembly to the Labour Reform has passed the first debate, and it has created great concern among businessmen and workers because there are doubts about the real benefits of the law.

The Executive referred this past February 23rd the project of the Law for the promotion of youth work, employment protection, and unemployment insurance. One of the main points of this reform involves a mechanism where companies in crisis, in a previous agreement with the workers, can reduce the labour hours.

The Workers Commission were waiting for the report to be approved today, in order to be ready for a second debate.

Here is a list of the articles of the new laws:

Article 4: Establish that in exceptional cases, in a previous agreement between employer and employee, the labour hours could be reduced to 30 hours per week, conditioned by eight factors.

Article 4.1. The employer should demonstrate that he has optimised his expenses, like lowering the monthly salaries of executive employees.

Article 4.2. The employer should be authorised by the proper State officers when the company has shown heavy losses compared to last year, demonstrating that the company’s income was 30% less than last trimester.

Article 4.3. The reduction of the working hours can only be applied for six months, and can only be extended once. (I)

Original source in Spanish: http://www.elcomercio.com/actualidad/jornadalaboral-empleados-empleadores-leyes-ecuador.html