For most foreign-owned companies in Peru, the first contact with a labor inspection is unplanned: an inspector at reception, an email in the company’s electronic mailbox, or a summons to appear with documents on a specific date. How the local team handles the first hours rarely decides the outcome on its own, but it frequently determines how much room the company will have later to correct problems, argue its position and keep fines proportionate.
Who inspects, and why they may be at your door
Labor inspections in Peru are carried out by SUNAFIL (Superintendencia Nacional de Fiscalización Laboral), the national labor inspection authority created by Law 29981 in 2013 as a specialized technical agency attached to the MTPE, the Ministry of Labor and Employment Promotion. SUNAFIL enforces the whole body of labor law: employment contracts, payroll registration, working time, statutory benefits, occupational health and safety, and the rules on outsourcing and staffing.
The legal architecture is compact and worth knowing by name:
- Law 28806, the General Labor Inspection Law, sets out the inspectors’ powers, the inspection measures, the categories of infringement and the fine caps.
- Supreme Decree 019-2006-TR, its implementing regulation, classifies infringements as minor, serious or very serious and contains the fine schedule. It has been amended several times; its current fine table was introduced by Supreme Decree 008-2020-TR.
An inspection can be triggered in several ways under article 12 of Law 28806: an order from a superior authority, a request from another public body or a court, an employee or union complaint, an internal SUNAFIL decision (for example, a sector-wide campaign), the inspector’s own initiative, or a request for guidance. From the employer’s point of view, the trigger matters because it defines the likely scope. A complaint by a dismissed manager about unpaid overtime points to working time and final pay; a sector campaign on outsourcing points to contractor arrangements.
Key point
An inspection is not a negotiation that starts later. Evidence is collected from the first visit, and what the inspector records then will be the factual basis of any sanction.
The first hour: receiving the inspector
Article 5 of Law 28806 gives inspectors broad powers: to enter workplaces without prior notice, require the production of documents, interview the employer’s staff and employees, and take samples or measurements. In practice, the first hour should follow a simple protocol.
- Verify identity and mandate. Ask to see the inspector’s credentials and note the number of the inspection order (orden de inspección). This is legitimate and expected; it is not a delaying tactic.
- Grant access and call the designated contact. Reception staff should know who to call. The inspector should not be kept waiting while the team searches for someone with authority.
- Assign one spokesperson. One person should lead the interaction, supported by HR and, ideally, by counsel. Several managers offering different versions of the same facts creates problems that are hard to repair.
- Log every request. Write down each document requested, the format required and the deadline. Ask for clarification if a request is ambiguous.
- Do not sign under pressure without reading. If the inspector prepares a record of the visit, read it, and ask to include the company’s observations where the record is incomplete or inaccurate.
Employees may be interviewed privately. The company should not try to be present during those interviews, coach staff beforehand or discourage anyone from speaking; beyond the ethical problem, it can be characterized as obstruction.
| Situation | Recommended response | What to avoid |
|---|---|---|
| Inspector arrives unannounced | Verify credentials and order, grant access, call the designated contact | Asking the inspector to come back later |
| Request for documents on the spot | Deliver what is available; log the rest with a deadline | Promising documents that do not exist |
| Employee interviews | Allow them without interference | Coaching staff or sitting in |
| Draft record of the visit | Read it fully and add observations | Signing without reading, or refusing to engage |
Who speaks for a foreign-owned company
This is where international groups most often stumble. The local general manager may be an expatriate who has never dealt with SUNAFIL, the HR lead may report to a regional HQ, and payroll may be processed by a shared-services center or an external provider in another country. None of that changes the legal position: the Peruvian entity is inspected, and deadlines run against it.
Three decisions should be made before any inspection arrives:
- Local authority. Identify who can represent the company before SUNAFIL, sign submissions and commit to remediation. Check that the corporate powers registered in Peru actually cover this, and prepare a standing authorization letter for HR or counsel where appropriate.
- Escalation path. Agree internally which decisions require regional or global sign-off (for example, paying back wages to a whole group) and which do not. Inspection deadlines are typically measured in business days; a response that waits for a monthly regional committee will be late.
- Language and format. Peruvian authorities work in Spanish. Policies, contracts or reports held only in English will generally need a Spanish version to be useful as evidence. Preparing translations in advance for core documents is far cheaper than doing it under a deadline.
Watch out
A regional HQ that needs “a couple of weeks to review” before the Lima team can respond is a common source of avoidable non-compliance. Delay in producing information can itself become an infringement against the inspection.
Documents: what the inspector will want to see
The specific requests depend on the scope, but they usually cover the employee’s registration in the electronic payroll (the planilla electrónica), payslips, employment contracts, attendance records, proof of payment of statutory benefits, and health and safety documentation. Our note on documents SUNAFIL can request sets out the usual list and how to keep it inspection-ready.
For international operations, two practical points matter:
- Records held abroad or by a provider. If payroll is run by a shared-services center or an external processor, the Peruvian entity must still be able to produce the records within the deadline. Service agreements should require the provider to deliver documents quickly and in usable form.
- Consistency. The inspector will compare documents against each other and against interviews. Attendance logs that do not match payroll, or contracts that describe roles differently from how people actually work, are more damaging than a missing document, because Peruvian inspection applies the principle of primacía de la realidad (primacy of facts over form).
After the visit: measures, deadlines and the infringement report
An inspection seldom ends on the first day. Investigations generally may not last longer than 30 business days, unless the delay is attributable to the employer, although extensions can be authorized (except in occupational health and safety matters). During that period the inspector may schedule further visits, issue a summons to appear (a comparecencia; see our guide on preparing for a SUNAFIL appearance) or verify data remotely.
If the inspector detects a breach, the law provides for inspection measures: a warning, a compliance order (medida de requerimiento) giving the employer a period to correct the breach, and in cases of serious and imminent risk, the stoppage or prohibition of work. If the order expires without correction, the inspector issues an infringement report (acta de infracción), which opens the path to the sanctioning procedure. Facts recorded in that report are presumed true unless proven otherwise (article 47 of Law 28806). Our note on the stages of a labor inspection explains the full sequence.
Legal note
Under the implementing regulation, if the employer corrects the breach before the infringement report is issued, any proposed fine for the infringements actually cured carries a 90% reduction, although the benefit is lost if the company later contests those same infringements. Early, well-documented correction is therefore usually the most cost-effective option.
Notifications during and after the inspection are typically served through SUNAFIL’s electronic mailbox (casilla electrónica), a mandatory electronic notification system. Deadlines run from notification, whether or not anyone reads it. Someone in Peru must check it regularly, with a back-up.
Illustrative scenario
Illustrative scenario: a Peruvian subsidiary of a European engineering group employs 140 people in Lima and Arequipa. Payroll is processed by a shared-services center in another country; HR policies are approved by a regional HQ in Mexico City. A former project coordinator files a complaint about unpaid overtime. An inspector visits the Lima office on a Tuesday morning and requests attendance records, payslips and overtime authorizations for the last twelve months, to be delivered within a few business days.
The local HR manager has the contracts, but attendance data sits in a regional timekeeping platform, and payslips are generated abroad. The regional HQ asks for a legal memo before releasing anything. By the deadline, the company has delivered contracts only. The inspector records the partial delivery, issues a compliance order on the overtime issue, and later drafts an infringement report covering both the substantive breach and the failure to produce records.
With a pre-agreed protocol, the outcome could have been different: a local representative with authority, a provider contractually bound to deliver records within 48 hours, and a pre-approved rule that the Lima team may produce statutory records without regional sign-off. The underlying overtime issue might still exist, but the company would have kept the option of correcting it before the report, and would have avoided the separate exposure for non-cooperation.
Checklist for the day an inspector arrives
- Reception staff know whom to call and where the inspector should wait.
- A designated representative with documented authority is available, with a named back-up.
- The inspection order number, the inspector’s name and every request are logged in writing.
- Core records (contracts, payroll registration, payslips, attendance, benefits, health and safety) can be produced in Spanish from Peru.
- External payroll or HR providers are contractually required to deliver records promptly.
- The electronic mailbox is monitored daily by at least two people.
- Counsel is informed the same day and reviews any record before it is signed.
- Every delivery of documents is acknowledged and copied.
Consequences of getting it wrong
The exposure from a poorly handled inspection is layered. First, the underlying labor breach, which may affect many employees and be fined per affected worker. Second, infringements against the inspection itself: under article 36 of Law 28806, refusing or hindering the inspection, abandoning a diligence and failing to attend a summons are all infringements, and failure to comply with a compliance order is classified as very serious. Third, a loss of options: once the infringement report is issued, the largest fine reduction is no longer available. Finally, inspection results are public in nature and SUNAFIL may disseminate them, which matters for groups with reputational or ESG reporting commitments. The frequent missteps are summarized in our note on common employer mistakes during a labor inspection.
Key takeaways
A SUNAFIL inspection is manageable when the company treats it as a structured process with deadlines, not as a one-off visit. Decide in advance who represents the Peruvian entity, make sure records can be produced locally and in Spanish, and give the local team authority to cooperate without waiting for approvals abroad. For a broader view of how inspections fit into the Peruvian compliance system, see our guide to labor inspections in Peru; for support during an active inspection, see our labor inspection defense service.