What is the new Karin law and what behaviors will be sanctioned at work?

This August 1st, the Karine Loi which is named in memory of Karin Salgado, TENS, who committed suicide in 2019, after being the victim of harassment at work at the Herminda Martín Hospital in Chillán, in the Ñuble region.

It’s about Law No. 21,643 which amends the Labor Code to provide guidance on the prevention, investigation and punishment of sexual harassment or gender-based violence at work .

This legislation protects employees holding a fixed-term or indefinite employment or task contract, as well as self-employed workers who regularly provide services in the same place.

The text establishes amendments and additions to legal definitions, considers preventive and protective measures, in addition to improving investigation procedures. Among the measures envisaged by the Karin Law are the following:

• Integrating new legal definitions and improve existing problems, such as workplace harassment, sexual harassment and violence at work, as well as non-discrimination, in addition to integrating a gender perspective into employment relations.

Among the key concepts, according to the Official site of the government which presents this project, it is defined:

1. sexual harassment : That a person makes, inappropriately, by any means whatsoever, requests of a sexual nature, not consented to by the person receiving them and which threaten or harm your employment status or employment opportunities .
2. Harassment at work : Any behavior, whether manifested one or more times, which constitutes an assault or harassment, perpetrated by the employer or by one or more workers against one or more other workers, by any means whatsoever, and which results in impairment, mistreatment or humiliation of the person(s) concerned, or which threatens or harms their employment situation or employment opportunities.
3. Violence at work : Exercised by third parties not involved in the employment relationship understood as behaviors that affect workers, in the course of providing services, by customers, suppliers or users, among others.

By continuing the measurements, the following changes are also determined:

• Strengthening the role of the Directorate of Labor and the Comptroller General of the Republic for the corresponding investigation processes.
• Set as obligation for companies and state bodies to have a protocol for preventing harassment and violence at work strengthening a preventive approach.
• New standards and changes in the complaint, investigation and sanction processes regarding sexual harassment, workplace harassment and workplace violence.

In detail, these modifications take into account these points:

1. It integrates the principles of confidentiality, impartiality, speed and gender dimension into investigation procedures.
2. It specifies that the complaint may be written or oral to the company, establishment or department, or to the Labor Inspectorate. In the case of an oral complaint, the person who receives it must draw up a report which must be signed by the complainant and provide a copy.
3. It requires employers to take immediate protective measures, taking into account, in addition to what is currently provided for in the regulations, the safety of the complainant and their early psychological care.
4. If the complaint is filed with the Labor Inspectorate, the latter must ask the employer, within a maximum of 2 days, to adopt protective measures, which must be adopted immediately.
5. If the complaint is filed with the company, establishment or service, the latter may carry out an investigation or transmit the information to the Labor Inspectorate within 3 working days.
6. In the event of violence at work, the conclusions will contain the corrective measures that the employer will adopt in relation to the cause that generated the complaint.
7. Depending on the merits of the investigation report in cases of sexual and workplace harassment, the employer must, within fifteen days of receipt of the report, provide for and apply the corresponding measures or sanctions.
8. The measures or sanctions adopted will be communicated to the complainant as well as to the person reported.
9. Employers will be required to provide information to the complainant on the channels for reporting facts that may constitute possible crimes in the context of sexual or workplace harassment or violence at work.
10. If the competent Labour Inspectorate, in the exercise of its powers, becomes aware of a violation of fundamental rights, it must file a complaint with the court, and conciliation in matters of sexual harassment is not obligatory.

In the event of workplace harassment, sexual harassment or violence at work, The worker can report to his employer, to the Labor Inspectorate or to the labor courts. .

In the private sector The investigation procedure begins with the filing of the complaint, from which a 30-day deadline to conduct the investigation .

Meanwhile, for the public sector the procedure may begin with a summary investigation, which provides for a period of 5 working days; or by way of administrative summary proceedings, when more serious facts are confirmed. It establishes a 20 working days to close the investigation although it can be extended up to 60 working days.