Columbia Senate Approves Labor Bill, which means more pay and protection for workers

Bogota, Colombia (AP) – The Colombian Senate approved a labor bill Tuesday night that promises to grant workers more overtime pay while making it harder for companies to hire workers in short-term contracts.

The bill was ratified because tensions between the Senate and Gustavo Petro are increasing in reforms to the economy and health system that polarize the country’s politically and test the separation of power in Colombia’s fragile democracy.

PETRO repeatedly accused Congress of blocking his reforms and issued a decree last week calling on the national registrant of the Colombian Elections Bureau to organize a referendum on labor law.

The agency said Tuesday it would wait for a Columbia court to decide whether it is legal to organize a referendum, as the Senate voted against the referendum last month.

Petro threatened to change Colombia's constitution by calling for a constitutional parliament if his labor law referendum request is not approved, and said in a post on Tuesday that those who do not approve the referendum are committing “treason.”

Opposition leaders accuse the president of developing authoritarianism in trying to cover decisions made by Congress.

The labor bill approved by the Colombian Senate on Tuesday includes many changes to the Colombian labor law proposed by Colombian political parties, the Historical Convention. It adds surcharges to employees working on Sundays and makes the company pay more for evening shifts, which may apply to many retailers, restaurants and hotels.

The bill also says that the delivery app must formally hire a deliveryman as a freelancer or full-time employee and help pay for its health insurance.

Colombia's business associations object to the changes, believing that they will increase the cost of hiring and ultimately increase the unemployment rate.

Currently, 56% of Colombian workers work without a contract, which is called an informal economy. Economists expect reforms to put more people in informality, while supporters of the bill argue that they are simply working to restore rights workers in the early 1990s, and Colombia is beginning to make labor laws more flexible.

Now, the Senate and the House must reconcile the differences in the bill drafted by each chamber of commerce and then agree to the final version of the bill.

Petro wrote in a message on X that he would continue to push for a referendum until lawmakers in both chambers voted on the last bill.