President Bachelet enacts law to improve unemployment insurance

SANTIAGO.-  The President of the Republic, Michelle Bachelet, has enacted a law to improve obligatory unemployment insurance and modify other relevant legal regulations, along with the Public Stimulus Plan announced by the government to reduce the effects of the international economic crisis currently affecting the country.

The initiative offers a larger amount of coverage and provides more benefits, facilitating worker reinsertion through of the Labor Information System and the National Employment Registry, as well as modifications to the investment guidelines of the funds.

The new law expands coverage to include employees that have a fixed term, project or service as eligible for the insurance, allowing them to access the Unemployment Solidarity Fund (Fondo de Cesantía Soldario).

In doing so, the law makes the conditions required to access the fund more flexible by establishing the same requisites for fixed-term and undefined-term employees:  fund deposit records over the last 24 months from the time the position with one or more employers ended, with the last three having come from the same employer.