This past Tuesday, Law 21,409 was published in the Official Gazette, which grants health workers 14 working days of rest for their work during the pandemic. However, this does not include employees of private establishments.
This project was presented in August 2020 by the deputy of the Communist Party (PC), Karol Kariola, and was supported by the deputies Boris Barrier (PC), Miguel Crispi (RD), Diego Ibanez (SC), among others.
The initiative was born from seeing the constant stress that health personnel were experiencing in the fight against the pandemic that continues to affect the world.
According to several experts, it is important that health officials obtain days off, since otherwise their work, their mental health and their treatment of patients could be affected.
Does not include clinic workers
Although not all of it is good news, since the Law only includes workers in public establishments, experimental health workers, institutional hospitals, municipal primary care establishments, and municipal health administrators. Clinic staff being ruled out.
The executive vice president of Clinicas de Chile, Javier Fuenzalidapointed to Third that “private health providers, since the beginning of the pandemic, have made the maximum effort to support and protect the integrity of our workers.”
Faced with this situation, the deputy, John Louis Castro (PS), indicated that “we always ask that everyone be present, that was the idea that we support from the opposition, but since this is a project of exclusive responsibility of the Executive, because it involves resources, we do not have control of the bill and, therefore, agreements had to be made and the project advanced, but the original motion was with everyone”.
Meanwhile, the parliamentarian Ricardo Celis (PPD) commented that “with Deputy Karol Cariola we are reviewing and we hope that the first week of March, when we return, we can submit a motion so that in the next period the situation of people who work in the private system is reviewed.”
