Why the labor reform sank and did not reach extraordinary

The labor reform, one of the star projects of the government of Gustavo Petro, sank, definitively, this Tuesday June 20 in the Congress of the Republic, on the last day of the first legislature of the period 2022-2026.

The initiative had been tried to be discussed a couple of times and the paper on which they were going to work had already been approved in the Seventh Commission of the House of Representatives.

This being the case, and taking into account that extraordinary sessions will be held in the Legislature for some projects, Why did the labor reform ‘died’?

Political analyst Carlos Arias, He explained that initiatives that fell through cannot be included in extraordinary sessions.

(See: Guilds, in favor of the collapse of the Petro labor reform).

“In extras they can put the reforms that are in process, such as health or pension. In this legislature the labor bill was not approved in its first debate, because the Seventh Commission did not pass it. Therefore they cannot include it. The extras are a continuation of the current legislature, and in this legislature the labor reform fell“, he claimed.

In other words, labor reform He had to pass his first debate in ordinary sessions at least to be able to enter extraordinary sessions.

Faced with this, article 190 of Law 5 of 1992 says that: “Legislature transit. Projects other than those referring to statutory laws that have not completed their process in a legislature and were approved in the first debate in one of the Chambers, will continue their course in the next one in the state in which they are found. No project will be considered in more than two legislatures“.

Diego Escallón, professor at the Law School of the Universidad de los Andes, He went further and commented that the labor reform collapsed because the Government failed to agree with the different political forces “a proposal that would reconcile the ideological vision of the demands of the unions and the Government with the economic capacities of the country in the midst of the industrial slowdown“.

(See: Does the ILO support or not the labor reform?: This is what Andi and Mintrabajo say).

“In addition, the confrontation of the President of the Republic with the political parties reconfigured the relationship with Congress and reduced his will to accompany his projects,” he said.

The expert Escallón affirmed that the Petro government closes a first legislature with the lowest numbers of the last 3 governments: only 14 bills of his authorship were approved.

(See: Work stress levels in employees are at historical records).

“The Minister of the Interior and a cabinet that is much more biased towards being close to the president has become his own course because it does not allow him to open the political spectrum and does not allow him to disagree between different leadership visions; but it becomes a place for the confirmation of your ideas“, held.

Labour reform.

TIME

Darío Maldonado, professor at the School of Government of the Universidad de los Andes, commented that the Government proposed a reform that was a knot between workers and employees, “when there were many things that could be done to reduce unemployment and informality beyond that initiative“. In

“They were not going to find consensus and there were other paths that should have been taken, such as, for example, thinking about having a universal social security that is not tied to the employment situation and whose financing is not tied to current employment either.“, he added.

(See: Banco de Bogotá opens 600 vacancies for students and professionals).

Escallón said that “If the government wants to approve a labor reform, it must rebuild its relationship with the parties, open space for real dialogue and give in to its ideological vision to meet the calls of academics, the business sector and non-governmental organizations. Change is not achieved without consensus“.

And Arias valued that the project will be presented in the next legislature (which will begin on July 20). with some kind of modification.

BRIEFCASE