Regulation on part-time work in Guatemala
The ratification by Guatemala of Convention 175 of the International Labour Organization, the Part-Time Work Convention, was seen for its implementation in the need for a regulation to regulate its implementation. With the recent approval of the corresponding regulation, the Guatemalan economy could improve considerably due to the generation of employment that this can provoke.
The Minister of Labor, Gabriel Aguilera, points out that the regulation is a source of legal certainty for companies, as well as a support and a benefit for those people who today cannot work full days and constitutes a guarantee for the payment of all labor benefits that the law orders.
Although the Convention, which originally dates from 1994, had been ratified since 2017 by the Congress of the Republic, it could not become a positive norm without the adoption of a Regulation regulating fundamental issues such as the duration of part-time work.
In this sense, the Regulations of the Convention can promote the creation of employment that will favor the population of working age, which is currently 11.65 million people according to data from the National Statistics Institute.
Legislation such as this, which favours investment, is an incentive to reduce current unemployment rates, which according to INE data is currently around 2.8%. By virtue of this, the chambers and business associations have congratulated the publication of the Regulation, and have pointed it out as an evident improvement in the Guatemalan legal system and a further step in the construction of the Rule of Law.
José Rosales Cano
Senior Associate
García & Bodán
Guatemala