A. Measures for the protection of the unemployed
Independent contractors and employees could access to the Unemployment Protection Mechanism if they made contributions to the Family Compensation Bureaus for at least one continuous or discontinuous year in the last five (5) years.
The benefits that are part of the Unemployment Protection Mechanism, which include the payment of quotations to the social security system in health and pensions calculated based on one (1) minimum monthly statutory salary and the monetary amount of the family subsidy, will be paid for a maximum of three (3) months and not of six (6) months as originally established in article 12 of Law 1636 of 2013.
B. Alternative Working Schedules
During the Health Emergency and by mutual consent, the parties of an employment contract can agree on a different working schedule different from the one established in literal c) of article 161 of the Labor and Employment Code, by virtue of which the employee will provide his or her services in successive working shifts that allow the company or its sections to operate without interruption, every day of the week, provided that each shift does not exceed eight (8) hours per day and forty-eight (48) hours per week. Under this special working schedule there is no payment of statutory surcharge for night work or work performed during Sundays or Holidays.
During the Health Emergency and by mutual consent, the parties of an employment contract can agree on a different working schedule different from the one established in literal d) of article 161 of the Labor and Employment Code, by virtue of which the weekly schedule of forty-eight (48) hours can be distributed in four (4) days a week, with a maximum daily shift of twelve (12) hours, without having to pay the surcharge for overtime work. Under this special working schedule employer must pay the statutory surcharge for night work or work performed during Sundays or Holidays, which can be differed by mutual consent until December 20, 2020.
C. Alternative for the payment of the semester bonus
Employer and employee can agree to postpone the payment of the semester bonus corresponding to the first semester of the year until December 20, 2020.
Likewise, the parties of the employment relationship can agree the payment of the semester bonus in three (3) installments before December 20, 2020. This is also applicable to the beneficiaries of the Program to Support the Payment of the Semester Bonus – PAP.
D. Program to Support the Payment of the Semester Bonus – PAP
The Program to Support the Payment of the Semester Bonus (PAP for its acronym in Spanish) is created, under which its beneficiaries will receive a single monetary contribution, to support and subsidize the payment of semester bonus for the first half of 2020. This program has as purpose to support and protect formal employment during COVID-19.
The amount of the government contribution that beneficiaries of PAP may receive corresponds to the number of employees multiplied by two hundred and twenty thousand pesos (COP $220,000). The number of employees corresponds to the number of workers reported in the PILA for the month of June 2020. Also, employees must have been reported in the PILA for the months of April and May 2020.
For PAP purposes, it will be understood as employees the dependent workers for which the beneficiary performs quotations to the social security system, with an income base of quotations of at least one minimum monthly statutory salary and up to one million pesos (COP 1,000,000).
PAP beneficiaries may be those who meet the following requirements:
- Have been legally incorporated prior to January 1st, 2020.
- Have a commercial registry that has been renewed at least in 2019. This requirement only applies to legal persons incorporated on year 2018 or earlier.
- Demonstrate the need of the state contribution, certifying a diminishment equal to or higher than 20% of their income in the same terms applicable for the Program to Formal Employment – PAEF.
The PAP will apply only for the first payment of the semester bonus of 2020.
Other aspects pertaining the application procedure, restitution of the state contribution, exclusion of Valued Added Tax, and consequences for breach or fraud, are governed by the same rules applicable or the PAEF.
E. Program to Support Employees with Employment Contracts Suspended
The Program to Support Employees with Employment Contracts Suspended is created, under which monetary aid will be delivered to the employees of the applicants to the PAEF who have had their employment contracts suspended or are in unpaid leave, are not covered by state social programs and earn up to four (4) legal monthly minimum wages in force. The program will be administered by the Ministry of Labor
The amount of aid to employees with a suspended employment contract will be of a monthly amount of one hundred sixty thousand pesos (COP $ 160,000) and will be deposited in the deposit products that each beneficiary has. The number of the monthly transfer that can be paid will correspond to the number of months in which the employees has had his or her employment contract suspended or is on unpaid leave during the months of April, May, and June 2020.
To be a beneficiary it is required to:
- Have an employment contract with an entity applying to the PAEF.
- Earn a salary up to four (4) minimum monthly statutory salaries.
- Have the employment contract suspended or be on unpaid leave.
- Not be covered by the Families in Action, Social Protection for the Elderly - Colombia Senior, Youth in Action, compensation for sales tax-VAT, or the Solidarity Income Program.
The Ministry of Labor will establish the process and the conditions to which the financial entities involved, the UGPP and the actors participating in this program must abide by.