Although the board of directors has its foot on the accelerator and is not giving more space for the debate to be delayed, the plenary session of the House of Representatives is not advancing in the labor reform process as the National Government would like and due. Due to this, the arrival to the Senate could take longer than expected, adjusting the times so that this project can become law.
Although until now the quorum has been respected and a debate has been generated open between the Government and the opposition, moves such as the recusal of the president of this legislative chamber, Jaime Raúl Salamanca, and the various proposals to modify and archive the articles of the initiative, as well as the interventions before each decision, have led to this process is delayed and will take at least a week longer than projected.
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The accounts in Congress indicated that during the first week of October, the reform already had all the steps taken in the House and was filed in the Senate to use the 10 weeks remaining in this first part of the legislative period and reach the two approvals more than required by law. However, all this would take at least seven days, if everything continues as it goes.
What is needed?
As of the closing of this edition, the plenary session of the Chamber had endorsed 32 of the 80 articles of the project, while one more (article 8) was sunk during the session last Tuesday, October 1. In this way, 50% of the reform has not yet been processed and although it is expected that there will be a session this Thursday – October 3 – there are no great expectations that everything will be ready before Friday.
Labor reform debate
Milton Díaz / EL TIEMPO
Until now, the strategy of the Government and the speakers has been to present the proposal by blocks of articles and thus points such as agricultural work, compensation for dismissal without just cause, remote modalities and incentives and regulation of green jobs have already been defined. , among others.
“We have worked not only on the forms of contracting, but also on special or specific contracts, as is the case of the special contract for artists, for cultivators and intellectuals. We also work on the issue that has to do with the special contract that protects the countryside, the special contract that is also protecting the social security of informal workers and the protection for micro and small businesses,” said Minister Gloria Inés Ramírez.
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The regulations that have already passed strengthen the surveillance and monitoring of automated systems, while it is expected that attention will now focus on the agricultural contract and the regulation of wages, salaries, guarantees for quality of life and rural training programs for workers. Colombians.
On the other hand, with regard to article 8, this sought to increase significantly the compensation for dismissal without just cause, improving the conditions of the workers, establishing that for fixed-term contracts or for work or labor, the minimum compensation would be 30 days, instead of the current 15 days, a change that was intended to strengthen labor protection and ensure that employees received fairer compensation upon dismissal.
Education and employment
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We must not forget that according to what is established in the document reviewed by the Chamber, it is established that its objective “is based on the search for dignified and decent work, consequently, the regulation of labor relations regulated in the Substantive Code is mainly sought. of Labor”, a postulate that has been openly defended by Minister Gloría Inés Ramírez.
night shift
Among the topics that have also been debated in the Chamber during the sessions This week there is the night shift, a point at which a proposal was presented from the Democratic Center for it to start at 8:00 pm and not at 7:00 pm as had been agreed in the committee debates. In the end this idea was defeated by majorities and was maintained as the National Government wanted.
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“I believe that we can give Colombians peace of mind that we are already on the right path and we hope that during the week, hopefully by Thursday we will be able to finish this reform and if not, we will still have next week to continue working.” ”, concluded the Minister of Labor.
It should be noted that if the labor reform is not approved in its entirety before December 16, it will sink again and this would mark a new defeat for President Gustavo Petro, who so far has only managed to push forward the pension reform, which analysts They consider that it will fall in the Constitutional Court due to procedural defects, while political, health and educational reforms are being readied again.
Gloria Inés Ramírez, Minister of Labor.
According to the OECD, some aspects of the labor reform in Colombia could increase hiring costs, which would affect the formalization of employment and although they recognize that this project seeks greater protection for formal workers, the increase in costs could have adverse effects on the hiring, especially in less productive sectors, where companies face difficulties in modernizing the workforce.
In this sense, they emphasized that although the reform contains positive elements, such as additional protection for formal workers, it also represents risks for informal employment. Likewise, they highlighted that the proximity of the minimum wage to the average wage in Colombia reflects that the majority of workers earn little, which can make it difficult to create formal employment and increase the barriers to growth and productivity of companies.
