Following Law 2114 of 2021 on paternity leave, shared leave, flexible part-time leave and anti-discriminatory measures, Law 2141 introduced new provisions on maternity and paternity privileges:

• maternity leave was extended from three (3) months to eighteen (18) weeks after childbirth;
• unless an authorization is obtained from the Labour Inspector, or the Municipal Mayor in the corresponding case, the dismissal of a worker whose wife, partner or permanent partner is pregnant, or within eighteen (18) weeks after childbirth and is not formally employed, is prohibited. At this purpose, the worker must notify the employer, verbally or in writing, of the pregnancy status of his wife, partner or permanent partner, and declare under oath that she does not have a stable job or that she does not benefit from the Social Security Health System. Within the notification, the worker must present the necessary examinations and for this purpose she will have a term of up to one month to prove the pregnancy status;
• maternity leave is also extended to the parents in the same proportion during the 18 weeks following childbirth.

National Association of Entrepreneurs of Colombia (ANDI) considers shared parental leave a very important step forward in terms of gender equality in Colombia.

It is interesting to highlight that, in the same direction, also in Japan, as we report in our article, new recent provisions allow employees to take leave after the birth of a child in more flexible ways.

Another important new law recently introduced in Colombia establishes rules to promote and regulate remote work.  

Law 2121 provides, first, that this new modality - different from domicile work, telework and remote work (which are still in force and were neither repealed nor modified) - must be agreed between the parties and may be developed with existing technologies, new technologies and other mechanisms that allow remote work.

The regulation applies for Colombian residents, both entities and natural persons, or even foreigner entities that hire employees who are within the national territory. The manifestation of consent requires the use of a digital electronic signature, with methods such as codes, passwords, biometric data or private cryptographic keys, which identify a person. The employee will not have the right to  legal transportation aid.

A specific place of execution is not required, however, the employee´s workplace must have a permanent internet connection and must be established by mutual agreement and approved by the Occupational Hazards Administrators.

The government has a term of six months to implement and design a public policy to regulate and promote remote work.

By adopting this law on remote work, Colombia followed many countries - as we reported in our recent IOE Position Paper on Remote Work beyond Covid- 19 - confirming the increasing global relevance of this phenomenon and the need for its regulation.

ANDI supports these bills, but asked the Congress of the Republic for some modifications and clarifications to make their implementation more flexible and simple.