How do I report my employer to Sunafil in Peru?

What a Sunafil complaint actually is

Sunafil is the agency that inspects private employers in Peru and sanctions them for breaking labour or workplace-safety rules. Your denuncia is the notice that triggers an inspection. Sunafil verifies the facts, orders the employer to fix what can be fixed and, if it does not, imposes a fine.

What Sunafil does not do is order the company to pay you. Money owed to you is claimed in a labour lawsuit before the courts. The inspection file can be strong evidence in that lawsuit, which is one good reason to file. It does not replace it.

What you need on hand

If you do not know the RUC, the exact legal name is enough to look it up on Sunat. A sole trader with a business has a RUC too.

Foreign residents file exactly as Peruvians do. The carné de extranjería is a valid document. Immigration status is not a requirement for filing.

What happens after you submit

1. Admission or observation. Sunafil checks the complaint is complete; screening has a window of up to five business days from receipt. If something is missing it emails you and you have two business days from the notice to cure it. Item 9.3.2 of Directiva 002-2017-SUNAFIL/INII puts it plainly: once the deadline passes “y no mediando respuesta alguna o que la misma sea insuficiente, se considera como no presentada la denuncia y se procede a su archivo, siempre que lo requerido no pueda ser salvado de oficio”.
2. Inspection order. An inspector is assigned and may visit the workplace, summon the employer or request documents.
3. Inspection actions. The inspector establishes the facts. The primacía de la realidad rule applies: where paperwork and facts disagree, the facts win.
4. Requirement or infraction record. Breaches that can be corrected earn the employer a deadline to correct them. If it does not, or if the breach cannot be corrected, the inspector issues an acta de infracción.
5. Sanction procedure (PAS). A separate Sunafil unit opens the procedure in which the employer defends itself. It ends in a resolution that fines or shelves.
6. Appeal. The employer can appeal to the Intendencia and, in some cases, to the Tribunal de Fiscalización Laboral.

If your employer is a microenterprise

Since 2018, Ley 30814 had temporarily moved the inspection of microenterprises (microempresas), previously a job of the regional governments, to Sunafil. That assignment lasted eight years. Resolución Ministerial 194-2026-TR, published in El Peruano on 23 July 2026, treats it as expired: it says the temporary regime ran «hasta el 10 de julio de 2026» (until 10 July 2026) and that, with that period over, it falls «a los Gobiernos Regionales reasumir el ejercicio de las competencias y funciones en materia de inspección del trabajo con relación a las microempresas dentro de sus respectivos ámbitos territoriales» (to the regional governments to resume labor inspection powers over microenterprises within their territories). Its article 2 orders Sunafil to send the regional governments the files on pending complaints, inspection orders, infraction records and sanction procedures, but only «conforme al Listado de Microempresas que son fiscalizadas por los Gobiernos Regionales durante el año fiscal 2026, aprobado por la Resolución Ministerial Nº184-2026-TR» (in line with the List of Microenterprises inspected by the Regional Governments during fiscal year 2026, approved by Resolución Ministerial 184-2026-TR). Sanction procedures already concluded or in coercive collection are not transferred.

Watch the word «microempresa». For inspection, the sales cap of the MYPE law (up to 150 UIT) is not used; the number of workers is. Resolución Ministerial 157-2021-TR, published in El Peruano, quotes article 2 of Decreto Supremo 015-2013-TR this way: «se considera como microempresa al empleador que cuenta con entre uno y diez trabajadores registrados en la Planilla Electrónica» (a microenterprise is an employer with between one and ten workers registered on the electronic payroll), and the Labor Ministry draws up the list every year from the average number of workers on payroll in the twelve months before 30 June. We did not read Decreto Supremo 015-2013-TR as originally published, or Resolución Ministerial 184-2026-TR with the 2026 list.

Our reading is that if your employer is on that list (one to ten workers on payroll), inspection now belongs to your region’s labor directorate (dirección or gerencia regional de trabajo); if it has eleven or more workers, the complaint still goes to Sunafil even if its sales make it a microenterprise. We did not confirm whether Sunafil’s Denuncia Virtual portal still takes those complaints and forwards them, or how each region receives them: ask the regional labor directorate before you file.

You are not a party to the sanction procedure

The regulation says it plainly: during the investigation the complainant «no tendrá la consideración de interesado». In practice that means you are not notified of each step, you cannot challenge the resolution and you do not receive the fine. You can check the case status online and add information. That is the extent of it.

This is not a flaw. The fine is a State sanction against the company. Your debt is collected through a different door.

The two deadlines that can leave you with nothing

• Dismissal: the action to challenge a dismissal expires 30 calendar days after it happens. Calendar, not business days. Filing with Sunafil does not pause it.
• Unpaid benefits: claims for labour credits are time-barred 4 years after the employment ends.

If you are close to either, file the lawsuit first and the complaint second.

About phone numbers and WhatsApp

Sunafil helpline numbers circulate on social media. We do not publish them because we could not confirm them. The two confirmed channels are the Denuncia Virtual portal and the service page on gob.pe.

What if the company you reported doesn’t pay the fine?

That runs on a separate track from your complaint. What happens if they don’t pay the fine?

Was your probation extended without real justification?

If your employer labeled you ‘trust’ or ‘management’ staff just to extend your probationary period, without your actual duties justifying it, that classification may be fraudulent. Check probationary period in Peru: when it ends and what protection you have before filing a complaint.

Is your complaint about the disability employment quota?

SUNAFIL also inspects compliance with the disability employment quota and the provision of reasonable accommodations. Check disability and work in Peru: employment quota and reasonable accommodations before filing.