Colombia's Senate approves labor bill that would mean more pay and protections for workers

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombia's Senate on Tuesday night approved a labor bill that is expected to grant workers more overtime pay while making it harder for companies to hire employees on short-term contracts.
The bill's approval comes as tensions have been increasing between the Senate and President Gustavo Petro over reforms to the economy and health system that have polarized the nation's politics and tested the separation of powers in Colombia's fragile democracy.
Petro has repeatedly accused Congress of blocking his reforms and last week issued a decree that called on Colombia's elections agency, the National Registrar, to organize a referendum on labor laws.
The agency said Tuesday it would wait for Colombian courts to decide if it was legal for it to organize the referendum, because the Senate had voted against the referendum last month.
Petro has threatened to change Colombia's constitution, by calling for a constituent assembly, if his request for a referendum on labor laws is not granted, and in a post on X Tuesday, said that those who did not approve the referendum were committing 'treason.'
Opposition leaders have accused the president of developing an authoritarian streak, as he tries to override decisions made by Congress.
The labor bill approved by Colombia's Senate on Tuesday includes many of the changes to Colombia's labor laws proposed by Petro's party, the Historical Pact. It increases surcharges paid to employees who work Sundays and also makes companies pay more for late evening shifts, which is likely to apply to many retailers, restaurants and hotels.
The bill also says delivery apps must formally hire delivery workers as freelancers or as full-time employees and help to pay for their health insurance.
Business associations in Colombia oppose the changes, arguing they will raise the cost of employing people and could ultimately increase unemployment.
Currently, 56% of Colombian workers labor with no contracts, in what is known as the informal economy. Economists expect the reforms to push more people into informality, while supporters of the bill argue they are just pushing for the restoration of rights workers had in the early 1990s, before Colombia began to make labor laws more flexible.
The Senate and House of Representatives must now reconcile the differences in the bills each chamber drafted and then agree on a final version of the bill.
Petro wrote in a message on X that he will continue to push for the referendum until legislators from both chambers have voted on a final bill.

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

Bloomberg

31 minutes ago

• Bloomberg

Carney Bill to Speed Projects Passes Vote Despite Indigenous Opposition

Canada's House of Commons cleared a bill to accelerate the building of major projects such as pipelines, but Indigenous groups are threatening to force a legal battle over it. The legislation drafted by Prime Minister Mark Carney's government aims to fast-track construction by allowing projects that are deemed in the 'national interest' to receive a quicker review for environmental and other impacts. The bill now heads to the Senate, where it faces a final vote before becoming law.

Politico

an hour ago

• Politico

Trump says the US doesn't have to meet NATO spending goal

President Donald Trump said Friday that the U.S. shouldn't have to abide by the same defense spending standards as the rest of NATO — potentially antagonizing leaders from the rest of the alliance days before he's to meet with them in The Netherlands. Trump has long demanded that NATO states spend 5 percent of their GDP on defense but has never said if the U.S. should be included in that or not. The U.S. is currently at 3.4 percent. 'I don't think we should, but I think they should,' he said, responding to a question about his 5 percent defense spending goal. 'We've been supporting NATO so long. … So I don't think we should, but I think that the NATO countries should, absolutely,' he added. The summit kicks off Tuesday in The Hague with the leaders of 32 member states coming together to plan spending goals and reaffirm NATO force structure and deployment plans. Most NATO states spend just over 2 percent of their GDP on defense currently, with a growing number having outlined plans to get to around 3 percent over the next year or two. Trump's spending demand has hovered over the alliance since his reelection however, and the alliance has come up with a novel solution: Call for 3.5 percent on defense, with the remaining 1.5 percent taken up by domestic infrastructure and cybersecurity spending. Trump's apparent opting out of the higher target is unlikely to sit well with Republicans on Capitol Hill who've pushed for larger Pentagon budgets and have clashed with the administration over defense spending. Both Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), the chairs of the Senate and House Armed Services Committees respectively, have been pushing to drive U.S. defense spending to 5 percent of GDP. They and other GOP leaders criticized Trump's budget plans for keeping annual defense funding flat, save a one-time investment from Republicans' megabill of spending and tax cuts. Hitting that goal would mean a roughly $1.4 trillion defense budget for the Pentagon. Only Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have committed to 5 percent number so far, but most of the rest of the alliance is expected to follow suit at The Hague. There are outlines, however. The Spanish government, which is one of the lowest spenders on defense in the alliance, flatly rejected the 5 percent goal this week. In a letter to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte obtained by POLITICO, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said his government 'cannot commit to a specific spending target in terms of GDP at this summit.' Other allies who have spent more on defense in recent years are also grappling with how to keep pumping more money into their militaries. 'We have to find a realistic compromise between what is necessary and what is possible, really, to spend,' Germany's defense minister, Boris Pistorius said this month during a NATO meeting in Brussels. Seth Jones, president of the defense and security program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said in a press call Friday that U.S. defense spending, at 3.4 percent of GDP, is 'lower than during any time during the Cold War,' and the Trump administration's defense budget as a percentage of GDP 'is likely to be lower than the Carter administration's defense budget in the 1970s.' Connor O'Brien contributed to this report.

Politico

an hour ago

• Politico

Senate megabill will strengthen Obamacare, says red state hospital CEO

A provision in a key Senate committee's version of the GOP megabill will backfire against Republicans by forcing red states to consider doing exactly what Republicans don't want them to: expand Medicaid, the CEO of the South Carolina Hospital Association told POLITICO. Republicans have sought to shelter the 10 conservative states that have declined to expand Medicaid to cover more low-income people, as Obamacare encourages with generous federal subsidies. But the Senate bill, in an effort to find the savings needed to extend President Donald Trump's 2017 tax cuts, would still blow a hole in the budgets of Palmetto state hospitals by reducing what insurers who contract with the state to provide Medicaid services can pay them. States and Washington share the insurance program's costs. 'It affects the viability of the whole system,' said Thornton Kirby, chief executive of the South Carolina Hospital Association, which estimates the Senate proposal will cost the state over $2.3 billion annually. 'If you take away this alternative way to balance the budget, you leave us with only one path…Medicaid expansion,' Kirby said. The Senate is rushing to complete its version of a bill that would enact Trump's agenda using a procedure that requires only a simple majority vote. Trump wants it done by July 4, but with the slim margins in both houses of Congress, the industries affected by the bill are hoping to peel off votes to save themselves from cuts. Republicans can lose no more than three votes in either chamber as long as Democrats remain united in opposition. To make the case that the restrictions on so-called state-directed payments need to go, the hospital association is leaning on three home state Republicans with clout: Sen. Tim Scott, who has a seat on the Finance Committee that has proposed the restrictions; Rep. Russell Fry, who's on the Energy and Commerce Committee that drafted the Medicaid provisions of the megabill the House passed last month; and Henry McMaster, the governor of South Carolina and, Kirby said, a personal friend. 'I don't want to put him in the hot seat,' Kirby said of McMaster. 'He doesn't want to see [Medicaid] upended.' Of Scott, Kirby said he's in touch at least every other day and that the senator and Trump ally 'has been a champion.' 'He understands…he doesn't want to go down that path' of Medicaid expansion, Kirby added. The three Republicans did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Expanding Medicaid could help replace the revenue the Senate provision would take away because it would make many more people — South Carolina now has one of the nation's higher uninsured rates at 9 percent — eligible for the program. Under Obamacare, the federal government picks up 90 percent of the cost for the new enrollees. Under the Finance Committee proposal, state-directed payments to hospitals serving Medicaid patients would fall by 10 percent each year until the total payment rate is only 100-110 percent of the Medicare payment rate. In South Carolina, the current payment rate is more than twice the rate paid by Medicare, the federal health insurance program for elderly people. Hospitals in states that have expanded Medicaid would take an additional hit under the Senate proposal. The Finance Committee would lower the provider tax rate that the 40 states that have expanded Medicaid can levy on hospitals from 6 percent to 3.5 percent. States have used the taxes to boost their federal matching funds, which they have then sent back to hospitals in higher reimbursements. The Senate would freeze the tax rates in states like South Carolina that haven't expanded Medicaid, but would not require them to lower them. The version of the megabill the House passed would freeze the rates for all states, a plan Kirby was willing to accept. On Friday, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) urged GOP leaders to strike the Finance Committee language on Medicaid, warning the crackdown won't clear the House. Republican senators hope to pass their version of the bill next week after which the House would need to pass it before Trump could sign it into law.