Over 1,500 Chilean workers' wages had been seized due to student loan debts. If this precedent is accepted, it might affect over a million people who are debtors under the State-Guaranteed Loan System (CAE).
Representatives of Communist Party of Chile fight for protection of wages
During the session of the Labour Committee of the Chamber of Deputies request of Communist Party deputies Luis Cuello and Daniela Serrano (Communist Party) for the institution to issue a ruling on the protection of wages against debt collection procedures related to the State-Guaranteed Student Loan (CAE) was addressed. However, the legislators questioned the authority's assertion that the Labour Directorate lacks the jurisdiction to rule on this matter, refusing the ruling regarding the non-seizability of wages.
Following the director's presentation, the parliamentarians expressed their disagreement with the response given and questioned why the body responsible for ensuring compliance with labour legislation refused to issue a statement on a matter that directly impacts thousands of workers and their families, leaving them without clear guidance regarding the protection of their wages.
Communist Party representative Luis Cuello said: “It is disappointing that the entity responsible for protecting, upholding, and enforcing labour law is currently refusing to issue a statement, using arguments that, in my opinion, I do not agree with. First, because we have not requested a ruling on the legality or illegality of an action by another state body. That was neither the request nor the purpose of our petition.
Secondly, the introduction of a bill with multiple objectives cannot be interpreted as creating a legal vacuum or contradicting the central argument we have made. Nor do I believe it is a valid reason to refrain from issuing a statement.
Third, this is not a matter in dispute. We have not brought to the attention of the Labour Directorate, through its director, any specific case that is currently before the courts. Consequently, this is not a matter in dispute. What we have requested to clarify this discussion in the committee is an opinion regarding the protection of wages, their non-seizability, applying, first, the protective principle, which is a fundamental principle of Labour Law, and also the principle of primacy of reality.”
The head of the Communist Party caucus, Representative Daniela Serrano, stated: “It is quite concerning that the Labour Directorate is relinquishing its authority and leaving workers defenseless. The law is clear: wages are exempt from garnishment.
However, we have a Labour Director who prefers to look the other way while the government is carrying out garnishments that are, on the one hand, illegitimate and immoral, and border on illegal. Therefore, we ask the Labour Director to speak out against what the Treasury is doing.”