On June 20, 2022, Governor Pedro Pierluisi signed into law House Bill No. 1244, Act No. 41-2022 (Act No. 41), which amends and partially repeals the Labor Transformation and Flexibilization Act, Act No. 4-2017 (Act No. 4 or Labor Reform of 2017) as well as amends several other employment statutes.

In essence, Act No. 41 reincorporates statutory benefits that were eliminated by Act No. 4, granting employees in the private sector in Puerto Rico more rights, such as the following:

• Interpretation of ambiguities in employment agreements shall be liberally interpreted in favor of employees.
• The meal period shall be taken after the third but before the sixth hour of work. The employer and the employee may agree in writing that the meal period will be taken after the second hour of work. Employees who work less than six hours in the workday may no longer waive the meal period.
• Non-exempt employees who work on their day of rest shall be paid time and a half for hours worked during that day. In addition, non-exempt employees who are high school, college or postgraduate students shall be paid twice their hourly rate for hours worked on a resting day, except if they work for microbusinesses or small- or medium-sized employers, in which case hours worked on a resting day shall be paid at time and a half. For purposes of Act No. 41, microbusinesses have a gross annual income of less than $3 million and employ 25 or fewer employees. Medium-sized businesses have a gross annual income of...

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