After the approval and entry into force of the Salvadoran Labor Code, since 1963 and its subsequent reform in the year of 1972, companies acquired a new obligation and that is that all those with 10 workers or more, must write and obtain the approval of its own Internal Work Regulation.
The Labor Code of El Salvador, within its provisions, indicates that the purpose of the preparation and approval of the Internal Work Regulation is to establish clearly the obligatory technical or administrative rules that are necessary and useful for the proper functioning of the company, to which both the employer and the employee must abide.
The Internal Work Regulation must be drafted in accordance with the Labor Code, laws, contracts and conventions on labor matters that affect it, as well as adapting it to the characteristic activities of the company’s business.
The importance of having an Internal Work Regulation for companies falls on the issues that can be regulated by means of it, that is, those issues that the Labor Code and other laws, that affect the normal operations of companies, do not regulate in a specific and concrete way, according to the specialty of each particular case.
Thus, it is necessary for companies to develop their own Internal Work Rules, as this document is inherent in the operation of the same, since without it, there wouldn’t be rules governing labor activity, the form of administrative and technical organization of each company.
Within the Internal Work Regulations, the following issues are regulated, among others: the obligations and rights of both workers and employers, the way in which all employees will enjoy their annual leave, working hours (in line with the business line), the prohibitions that workers and employers have, protection in terms of regulation of occupational risks and occupational health; and, the sanctions or disciplinary faults that will be applicable.
After its preparation, the Internal Regulations must be reviewed and approved by the General Labor Directorate of the Ministry of Labor of El Salvador; who will make the observations they deem pertinent -if applicable- and grant the corresponding approval. After approval, the Internal Regulation must be made known to all employees of the company and will become effective 15 days after said knowledge.