sources in the insurance sector warned that in the Development plan an article could be approved that could set up a state monopoly in the field of occupational hazards to insure state workers.
Within the text of the paper for the first debate of the draft law of the National Development Plan (274 of 2023 Senate and 338 of 2023 chamber), there is an article that establishes that public sector workers must join the Positiva de Seguros Occupational Risk Administrator.
(‘The labor reform will bring cost overruns between 12% and 20%’).
They explain that this would occur without giving them the opportunity to consider other options offered by the market, compromising structural elements of the General System of Occupational Risks (SGRL).
Article 339 says that “The obligation is imposed on all entities and corporations of the national order, to affiliate with the public occupational risk administrator, Positiva Compañía de Seguros”.
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They explain that this rule goes against the principle of free competitionwhich has governed the insurance market since 1990, since it compromises fundamental constitutional principles established in the economic regime.
They warn that the purpose of the SGRL is to protect employed and independent workers from all the risks of accidents at work and occupational diseases, “therefore, free competition encourages the different administrators to improve the conditions of their attention and their offer of services with the purpose of attracting a greater number of affiliates; generating, in this way, innovation and effectiveness in the activities of health promotion and risk prevention, as well as better services in the attention of accidents”.
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Also, say the sources, that the provision to force the affiliation of a specific sector to an ARL, as proposed by this draft articleexcludes the competition environment, to the detriment of the protection provided by the system for employers and workers.
They comment that the creation of a state monopoly would mean going back on the path advanced in coverage and quality in the protection of workers’ occupational hazards, through the public-private administration.
(Who would manage health resources if the reform is approved).
Likewise, they assert that implementing this measure harms the State Occupational Hazards Administrator, “while by absolutely impeding the ability to compete with standards that require increasing the quality and attention of the service, it closes the possibility not only of better protecting public companies and their workers, but also of competing in other segments based on in achievements and results”.
For Francisco Azuero, former Vice Minister of Finance and professor of administration at the Universidad de los Andesthe right to free competition is enshrined in the Constitution and in the occupational risk sector, competition between public and private sector companies is logical and this cannot be based on prices or rates, Well, they are by law, but rather by quality, which is reflected in the type of prevention and protection activities that ARLs develop in affiliated companies and their workers.
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He says that “it is absolutely inconvenient for the State, taking advantage of its legislative power, to create privileges for state companies. This can be translated into inefficiencies and deficient attention to the workers of public entities”.
As of December 2022 the SGRL reported 1,080,796 affiliated companieswith a growth of 6.5% compared to 2021.
The number of affiliated workers amounted to 12,390,084, with an annual growth of 14.7% and the issued premiums amounted to $5.6 trillion.
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