Part-Time Employment Contract Chile (Contrato de Trabajo a Tiempo Parcial)

A Part-Time Employment Contract Chile (Contrato de Trabajo a Tiempo Parcial) is a formal written employment agreement governed by Articles 40bis through 40bis F of the Código del Trabajo (DFL No. 1 of 2003), which regulate the specific rights and obligations applicable when a worker's contracted weekly hours are thirty (30) or fewer. The jornada parcial is one of the recognized flexible employment modalities in Chilean law, designed to accommodate workers with caregiving responsibilities, students, workers with disabilities, and employers with part-time operational needs.

The constitutional framework is Article 19 No. 16 of the Constitución Política de la República de 1980, guaranteeing freedom of work, and Article 19 No. 18, establishing the right to social security — rights that apply in full to part-time workers. Article 19 No. 22 prohibits arbitrary discrimination, and the Dirección del Trabajo has issued Dictámenes establishing that part-time workers may not be treated less favourably than full-time workers except where proportionality is expressly provided by law.

Article 40bis of the Código del Trabajo establishes the definition of the contrato a tiempo parcial: it is a contract in which the agreed weekly working hours do not exceed two thirds of the normal maximum weekly hours applicable under the full-time schedule. Since the current maximum under Ley 21.561 of 2024 (Ley de las 40 Horas) is 44 hours per week (reducing progressively to 40 hours), two thirds of 44 equals approximately 29.3 hours — establishing the 30-hour ceiling as the statutory threshold for part-time employment. Workers whose contracted hours exceed 30 hours per week are classified as full-time (jornada completa) for all legal purposes.

Article 40bis A establishes that the remuneration of part-time workers must be proportional to their contracted hours relative to a full-time worker performing equivalent work. The Ingreso Mínimo Mensual (IMM — CLP 500,000 for 2025) applies proportionally: a worker contracted for 20 hours per week (compared to a standard 44-hour full-time week) receives a proportional minimum of approximately CLP 227,000. The Dirección del Trabajo enforces proportionality through the Inspección del Trabajo, and underpayment of part-time workers exposes employers to fines under Article 506 of the Código del Trabajo.

Article 40bis B permits part-time employment contracts to be agreed on an indefinite, fixed-term, or obra o faena basis — the rules of Articles 159 No. 4 and 159 No. 5 apply to part-time contracts, including the automatic conversion to indefinite status upon a second renewal of a fixed-term part-time contract.

Article 40bis C establishes that part-time workers have the right to voluntary overtime (horas extraordinarias pactadas) not exceeding the difference between their contracted hours and the full-time maximum. Overtime for part-time workers is paid at the 50% surcharge under Article 32 applied to the worker's hourly rate.

Article 40bis D and 40bis E provide special rules for alternating schedules (jornadas alternadas) in part-time contracts — allowing employers to alternate periods of increased and reduced hours, subject to written agreement with the worker.

Article 40bis F establishes that all mandatory benefits of the Código del Trabajo apply to part-time workers proportionally, including feriado anual, gratificación legal, and indemnización por años de servicio — calculated on the basis of the part-time remuneration actually received by the worker.

A Part-Time Employment Contract Chile is required whenever a Chilean employer engages a worker whose agreed weekly working hours are thirty or fewer, regardless of whether the part-time arrangement is combined with an indefinite, fixed-term, or obra o faena contract form under Article 40bis B.

The contract is needed when a retail company (supermercados, tiendas por departamento regulated under the Dirección del Trabajo's special retail inspections), hospitality business, restaurant, or café hires service staff for specific shifts — for example, a worker contracted for morning shifts of 5 hours per day for 5 days per week (25 total hours), or weekend-only shifts of 8 hours per day for 2 days (16 total hours). These arrangements are common in the Chilean retail and hospitality sectors, where the Inspección del Trabajo monitors compliance with the proportional minimum wage requirement.

Part-time contracts are appropriate for student workers who need to limit their working hours to accommodate academic commitments — Chilean universities such as la Universidad de Chile, la Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, and la Universidad de Santiago de Chile have cooperative programs with employers that involve part-time employment contracts. Students aged 18 or over may work part-time under standard Código del Trabajo provisions; workers aged 15–17 have separate restrictions under Articles 13–16.

Workers with disabilities registered with the Registro Nacional de la Discapacidad (maintained by the Servicio de Registro Civil e Identificación under Ley 20.422) often prefer part-time arrangements accommodating their functional limitations. The Servicio Nacional de la Discapacidad (SENADIS) promotes part-time employment for workers with disabilities, and employers with 100 or more workers are required to hire at least 1% of their workforce from persons with disabilities under Ley 21.015 of 2017.

Caregiver workers — those looking after children, elderly relatives, or persons with chronic illness — may request a voluntary reduction of hours or enter into part-time arrangements. Chile's Ley 21.645 of 2023 (on conciliación de vida laboral, familiar y personal) strengthened the right of workers to request flexible arrangements including part-time schedules, subject to the employer's consideration and response requirements under the Código del Trabajo.

Part-time contracts are also used for professionals providing specialized services on a limited-hours basis — for example, a psychologist hired for 10 hours per week to provide workplace well-being services, an IT specialist contracted for 15 hours per week, or a legal advisor contracted for part-time consulting hours. In these cases, the employer must carefully assess whether the arrangement genuinely constitutes dependent employment (relación laboral) or independent services (prestación de servicios a honorarios) under Article 7 of the Código del Trabajo — the primacía de la realidad doctrine will apply regardless of the contract label.

A valid Part-Time Employment Contract Chile under Articles 40bis through 40bis F of the Código del Trabajo must contain all essential elements of Article 10, plus specific part-time provisions.

Party Identification: Full legal names, RUT (SII), cédula de identidad (Registro Civil), nationality, and domicile of both employer and worker. For corporate employers, company RUT, RES inscription, and legal representative identity.

Contracted Hours — Maximum 30: The contract must expressly state the weekly hours, which may not exceed 30. This threshold triggers all Articles 40bis through 40bis F. Hours must be distributed specifying working days and start/end times under Article 10 No. 5 of the Código del Trabajo.

Proportional Remuneration: Under Article 40bis A, the agreed remuneration must be proportional to the contracted hours relative to a full-time worker. The employer must calculate the proportional minimum wage: (contracted hours / 44) × CLP 500,000 IMM = minimum monthly salary. Payment must be made at least monthly under Article 10 No. 4.

Gratificación Legal Proporcional: Under Article 40bis F and Articles 47–52, part-time workers receive proportional gratificación. The Article 50 method calculates gratificación as 25% of the worker's actual monthly remuneration (already proportional), capped at 4.75 IMM annually (the cap itself is not proportionally reduced — a full-time equivalent cap applies, but in practice the proportional salary means the gratificación amount is proportionally lower).

Feriado Anual Proporcional: Part-time workers are entitled to feriado anual under Articles 67–76, with the fifteen-day minimum (twenty days for southern regions) applying after one year of service. Under Article 40bis F, the leave days are calculated based on working days for the part-time schedule — a worker with a three-day-per-week schedule has a different calculation than a five-day-per-week worker.

AFC Unemployment Insurance: Part-time workers under indefinite contracts receive the same AFC structure as full-time indefinite workers under Ley 19.728 — employer 2.4% + worker 0.6% of taxable remuneration to individual account, plus employer 0.8% to solidarity fund. For part-time fixed-term contracts, the AFC structure is employer-only 3% to individual account.

Alternating Schedule Provisions (Arts. 40bis D and E): If the employer and worker agree to alternate periods of increased and reduced hours under an alternating part-time schedule, the agreement must specify: the alternating periods, the maximum hours in each period, the average weekly hours over the alternating cycle (must not exceed 30), and the remuneration adjustment mechanism.

Modification Rights: Under Ley 21.645 of 2023, workers with caregiving responsibilities may request reduction to a part-time contract from a full-time arrangement. Employers must respond in writing within 30 days, and unjustified refusal may be challenged before the Juzgados de Letras del Trabajo.

Termination: Part-time workers have the same termination rights as full-time workers under Articles 159–161, including indemnización por años de servicio under Article 163 (calculated on the part-time remuneration) and the finiquito ratification requirement under Article 177 before a Notario Público, inspector del trabajo, or secretary of the Juzgado de Letras del Trabajo.

Forms-legal.com provides this Part-Time Employment Contract Chile template as a practical starting point for documenting part-time employment relationships. All contracts should be reviewed by a licensed Abogado familiarized with Articles 40bis through 40bis F of the Código del Trabajo. Los usuarios de forms-legal.com pueden descargar este documento de forma gratuita en formato PDF o DOCX, completar los campos del formulario guiado y obtener un documento listo para firma.