During this day, the Ministry of Labor recalled that firefighters who are fighting forest fires can excuse themselves from attending work in an emergency without putting their job source at risk, and warned companies that they can be fined in case of breach.
Giorgio Boccardo, Minister(s) of Labor, emphasized that “the Labor Code guarantees the right of firefighters to be absent from their workplaces for the duration of emergencies. There is no maximum time for them to be called back and their remuneration cannot be deducted.”
In this context, he pointed out that “at this time, as a ministry we are deployed in two very essential objectives: the first is to ensure working conditions and protection for workers who are currently performing different functions for the emergency and on the other, to strengthen the entire social protection network of the ministry”
If this regulation is not complied with, the authority assured that “any firefighter or firefighter can file a complaint through the Labor Inspectorate. He can do it directly through the Labor Directorate on its website and from there, the directorate audits and passes the respective fines that can reach up to 60 UTM (about $3,700.00)”.
Check below the detail of labor rights for firefighters:
- The workers who are volunteers of the Fire Department are empowered to attend an emergency call that occurs while they are on their workday.
- The time that the volunteer allocates to emergency care will be considered as worked for all legal purposes.
- The employer will not be able to qualify this departure as unjustified to establish the grounds for job abandonment.
- The employer can request the respective Fire Department, the accreditation of the situation of the worker.
