Colombia’s left coalition rejects «regressive» labor reform – Colombia News

The leftist coalition that supports Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro in Congress said that the Senate converted its labor reform bill into something “that opens the doors to new forms of exploitation.”

The labor reform was proposed by the government and its leftist representatives in Congress in 2023, but sunk by the Senate’s social policy commission in April.

Senate President Efrain Cepeda of the Conservative Party revived the bill earlier this month and sent it to a second social policy commission led by the liberal Senator Angelica Lozano of the Green Alliance party.

Cepeda subsequently helped the traditional parties to sink a government attempt to seek popular approval of the labor reform through a referendum.

In an attempt to quell support for strikes announced by labor unions, Lozano praised the revived and revised bill, which maintained some of the original reform proposals, as “serious and just.”

Senate commission approves watered down labor reform ahead of national strike

The revived labor bill crossed the leftist Historic Pact’s “red lines” because it had scrapped a number of key reforms that had been approved in the House of Representatives.

“What was approved represents a clear defeat for those of us who dream of a fair and dignified labor model,” said the Historic Pact in a press statement.

Specifically, the Historic Pact criticized the removal of a ban on outsourcing, women’s menstrual rights and the formalization of labor by interns.

Furthermore, “measures were approved that open the door to new forms of exploitation. Hourly contracts were legalized, and the possibility of concentrating the working week into four days without paying overtime was introduced,” said the leftist parties.

The announced leftist opposition to the revived labor reform comes amid protests and strikes called by the labor unions and the Historic Pact in support of the original reform and Petro’s call for a referendum.