The law guaranteeing public transport during popular votes or referendums has finally been published in the Official Gazette. The initiative was presented by the government via the Labor and Social Security Ministry and the Transport and Telecommunications Ministry. It also allows workers of these transport services to compensate the days worked with days off on Sundays of the following or previous month. The text that brought this law into being establishes that, during the election process, “the availability of public transport workers may be insufficient to respond to the demand for transport on these days, having an impact on the availability of the bus fleet”.
The law also indicates that including compensatory days off will “adequately allow the rights of urban and rural public transport service workers, by giving them two Sundays off, [to be reconciled] with the duty of the State to ensure equal access for citizens to participate in national life, by guaranteeing the possibility for all people to travel to their respective voting center”.
Labor and Social Security Minister Jeannette Jara took the opportunity to highlight that the law “seeks to reconcile two very important rights for people: the right to vote; and the right for drivers to have Sunday off”.
She added that the law “allows us to have the entire workforce of urban and rural public transport drivers available, so that for the referendum this September 4, as well as for all future elections and referendums, we can count on the workers to make public transport work in Chile. This is in view of the fact that it is very important that the right to vote in an informed way is exercised, but also that Sunday off for transport workers is protected”.