The labor reform seeks to establish a maximum workday of eight hours per day and 42 hours per week. It establishes that overtime cannot exceed two hours per day and 12 hours per week, while stipulating a 35 percent surcharge for those who work at night. Another provision of the initiative establishes that those who work on their day off will earn double for each hour they remain employed.
Considering its content, the Ombudsman’s Office requested that the Senate’s Seventh Committee continue the debate on the bill, considering that it is aimed at creating tools to advance the guarantee, respect, and protection of the right to employment.
Labor Minister Antonio Sanguino stated that, according to his agency’s estimates, the Labor Reform could generate 91,000 new jobs each year once implemented.
President of Colombia Gustavo Petro, who assured that he would participate in the Bogotá rally, declared this day a civic one for the working class to protest and demand their rights in response to the signing by eight congressmen of a shelved resolution which constitutes the prelude to the bill’s collapse.
According to the head of state, the mobilization will mark the first of many actions that will be part of the call for a popular consultation so that the population can decide, without intermediaries, whether or not they agree with the reforms proposed by his government.
The president decided to invoke the mobilization after alleging that the Executive Branch is exercising an institutional blockade on proposals originating from the Executive Branch to vindicate social rights.
The Colombian Unitary Central Command, comprised of three labor unions and two confederations of pensioners, and other union organizations such as the Federation of Educators, have confirmed their participation in the rallies, which will be held in all 32 departments of the country. Representatives of indigenous peoples will also participate, including the Cauca Regional Indigenous Council, and the Agrarian Confederation Pacto Campesino.
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