House of Representatives approved the pension reform that will go to presidential sanction

With 86 votes for yes and 37 for no, the Plenary of the House of Representatives approved this Friday, in an unexpected turn, the final text approved by the Senate of the Republic. This way, The conciliation process is omitted and the project goes directly to presidential sanction.

(Read: They prepare a ‘flash’: Petro announces that there will be changes in his cabinet of ministers).

“Great news for the Colombian people. Colombia is moving towards a dignified and decent old age! The pension reform has been approved in the plenary session of the House of Representatives. For a system of protection for old age, disability and death”said the Ministry of Labor, after the vote in the House.

The debate and vote on the initiative took place in the midst of a hectic atmosphere of confrontation and rejection by the opposition parties, who denounced manipulation by the Government to approve the reform to “pupitrace”.

(See: Medium-Term Fiscal Framework confirms spending cuts and debt repayment as a priority).

Andrés Forero, representative of the Democratic Center, warned during this Friday’s session that allied forces of the Government “They are trying to make Congress “unicameral”” with the proposition that finally accepted the text of the pension reform that was approved by the Senate and that allowed conciliation to be omitted.

For his part, President Gustavo Petro celebrated the decision from Sweden and said that the approval of the pension reform “is the main social achievement of the working people of Colombia in a long time” and added that more than two million people who gave their working life will receive a decent pension bonus in their senior years.

This is the first of the Petro Government reforms that Congress approves in this legislature that ends on June 20, since the labor reform is still in progress, the health reform collapsed in March and the education reform still has a debate to become. in law.

The objective of the project is to maintain the retirement age at 57 for women and 62 for men, but expand the system so that everyone can benefit from resources even without having contributed enough in salaries.

The project has four pillars, the first of which will benefit two and a half million seniors who never contributed or had their money stolen and today are over 65 years old. The second welcomes those who contributed for a good part of their lives, but that will not be enough for them to retire.

For this reason, they will receive a pension income made up of the savings they have made in the Colpensiones public fund and a subsidy of up to 30% that the Colombian State will grant them.

(Also: Retail sales in Colombia do not take off and in April they fell 1.6%).

The third pillar is for those who contribute between one and up to 2.3 minimum monthly salaries, which will be in Colpensiones.

The last one will be for those who earn more than 2.3 minimum wages, who will be guaranteed the possibility of contributing the surpluses to the private pension fund of their choice and according to their income level.

Congressmen from different parties criticized this Friday the way in which the project was approved, since the House did not debate the content but rather voted on the same proposal that had already been accepted by the Senate.

For this reason, the pension reform should not be reconciled but will go directly to presidential sanction to become law.

(Also: Absenteeism from work: six out of every 10 cases in Colombia are unjustified).

Representative Caterine Juvinao, of the Green Alliance party, stated: “They are forcing us to vote with a single proposal presented by the Historical Pact, by government congressmen, that the pension reform not be debated in the House but that we simply vote on the text that was approved in the Senate”.

“If this proposition is approved (as it happened), the debate is over. It is as if the House had debated and voted yes to everything that the Senate said and that’s it, the pension reform is now approved,” Juvinao added in a video broadcast live on his social networks.

Representative Christian Garcés, of the opposition Democratic Center party, wrote on his networks: “The Petrista pension reform is approved regardless of the fact that they will spend the labor savings of Colombians as they wish and will leave young people without a pension, unless the retirement age and the weeks of contributions are increased”.

BRIEFCASE