COVID-19: Chilean President Pinera presents bill to protect independent workers
The proposal seeks to complement the measures already announced by the government and to generate protection for formal, informal, independent, and unemployed workers.
The proposal seeks to complement the measures already announced by the government and to generate protection for formal, informal, independent, and unemployed workers.
It has been changed before by referendum, following a 1988 vote that paved the way for a return to democracy.
The President called on lawmakers to work on passing a series of reforms aimed at meeting protesters' demands, including raising the minimum wage.
Voters will be asked to decide between convening a constitutional convention to craft a new national charter and making further reforms to the existing document
"Leave behind all these feelings of conflict, of division, of confrontation and look for what unites us, instead of looking for what sets us apart," he added.
Pinera signed the enactment at the presidential palace in the company of socialist former president Ricardo Lagos, who 15 years ago introduced a number of significant constitutional reforms.
No police officers have been killed in the demonstrations but the human rights institute said some 1,600 officers have been wounded.
Chilen President Sebastian Pinera has announced plans for a dialogue with the citizenry, but the protesters show little interest in talking with the government.
"Chile has changed and the government has to change too," to face the new reality in one of Latin America's most developed countries, he added.
"The march that all of us saw yesterday was a massive, joyous and peaceful march and one that opens great paths of the future and of hope. We have all heard the message," Pinera said.
