Working conditions and labour laws in Colombia

Among Expats I have known in South America, the labor laws come into play mainly when the Expat is hiring a local .. for instance, as a driver, a cleaner, a gardener or a cook.

Anecdotal reports from various Expats tell of a legal way to avoid the cumbersome payment, benefits and severance requirements that are contained in dense Spanish legalese in the employment law(s) of Colombia.

These savvy Expats hire through an agency.

They pay a little more per visit by a cleaning person or cleaning crew, for instance, meanwhile avoiding the possibility of a subsequent lawsuit on behalf of some worker who is claiming end-of-the-year bonuses, lack of insurance or improper termination.

The agency takes care of the Spanish-language paperwork and makes sure everything is kosher.

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All kinds of labour laws, but many employers do their best to avoid them and abuse the workers.

If they get charged, they just pay off the judge.

After living and working here for 8 years, it's a bit of a mixed bag.  There are some things that are on the surface in favor of employees, but generally working conditions are not so good for the average Colombian. 

Legally, if someone is contractually employed, not as an independent contractor, the employer must contribute to the employee's health insurance and a pension fund.  There are both private pension funds and a public fund.  The employee contributes 4% to each and the employer 12% to the pension and 8.5% to healthcare (for totals of 16 and 12.5%).  The public fund is subsidized if a worker meets a certain number of weeks that they had contributions, however this applies to the last 10 years of your salary regardless of what it is, so this subsidy actually tends to benefit the better off.  Read more about pensions at this guide.

There are also what are called prestaciones sociales, which are the prima and cesantías.  Primas are bonuses that consist of 1/2 a monthly salary paid at the middle and end of the year.  Cesantías are almost like an unemployment insurance, and are put into an account at the start of each year that you can only get access to when your term of employment is up or in some special circumstances, like if you are buying a house.  They equal 1/12th of a monthly salary for every month of the year you were employed.  Read more about Cesantías here.

Both are paid proportionally even if you leave a job before the contract is up.  You are also paid for vacation days whether you take them or not and also proportionally even if you leave a job early.

So all of that like I said on the surface is pretty favorable to workers.  However, the flip side is the average Colombian is paid very poorly.  A very high percentage of people here make at or slightly above minimum wage (a bit less than 300 USD a month).  Lots of people also work halfdays on Saturdays and many work overtime without being paid for it.  There's a bit of a, you should be happy we gave you a job and do whatever we ask mentality.  Perhaps that would be warranted if wages allowed more upward mobility but the reality is many university educated people are still only being paid slightly more than the minimum.

As an expat teacher, I've had it pretty good overall, and what I make dwarfs what my Colombian counterparts make.  While simple market conditions mean attracting native English speaking teachers means higher wages, it is inherently an unfair situation.  Hopefully it is something that will change as the middle class starts to grow a bit.