Time is running out for labor reform: the final vote in the Senate plenary session is set for this Tuesday.

The labor reform debate resumed yesterday, returning with the same problems as last week. Although agreements are being reached, they are not enough to conclude the debate, and the June 20 deadline for the bill to be approved and reconciled with the House of Representatives is getting closer. Such were the difficulties in reconciling the proposals that around 6 p.m., it was decided to adjourn to continue the talks and see whether President Gustavo Petro would accept the consensus.

As on Wednesday and Thursday, the session was delayed in starting due to the conciliation subcommittee meeting. Around 3:00 p.m., it was announced with great fanfare that several agreements had been reached, suggesting that the discussion would be expedited.

First, the elimination of the articles that allowed hourly contracts was agreed upon. A compromise was also reached so that nighttime surcharges would not be applied to microenterprises with fewer than 10 employees until the government introduces a law granting tax benefits to them. A provision was also agreed upon so that SENA apprentices would receive a type of bonus without having to establish their apprenticeship contract as an employment contract.

The Ministers of the Interior, Armando Benedetti, and Labor, Antonio Sanguino, and the two coordinators participated in that first agreement. However, the ministers had to present the proposal to President Petro. His reaction is unclear. However, he spoke out on social media and gave a message that suggested he was not happy with the proposal.

“An agreement on labor reform with the Senate is based on not backtracking on the consensus reached in the House of Representatives. We ask the Senate to move forward more progressively than what was approved in the House. We are not here to harm humble, hardworking people, just to strengthen a few privileges,” he said in his message.

On the other hand, the plenary session did not make much progress, as it was focused on the situation of Senator Miguel Uribe, whose health is in critical condition according to the latest statements from the Santa Fe Foundation. So much so that the senators from the Democratic Center got up and left to accompany their fellow party member to the medical institution.

Without the opposition, the plenary session moved forward, approving five articles and eliminating two more. All of these were agreed upon. However, when it came to addressing the most controversial ones (reinforced job security, hourly contracts, four-day workweeks, night shifts, among others), the discussion reached a standstill.

It was requested that these articles be left for last, while some members of the Historic Pact, such as Senator Clara López, decided to intervene to insist on their proposals given the difficulties in reaching agreements. The presence of figures such as former ambassador Roy Barreras and several ministers did not help smooth the path to reform.

In this context, the speakers requested an adjournment to try to reach a final agreement and unblock the discussion. Senate President Efraín Cepeda granted Monday night to try to clarify their positions. He set a meeting for 9:00 a.m. today.

If the path of conciliation is not resumed, Cepeda warned that the differences will be resolved by a clean vote. This would be a scenario in which the Petro administration would be the loser, as in the previous sessions it was defeated on each of the points it considered vital to its reform and on which it differed from the majority of the Senate.

After the session, Cepeda criticized the fact that agreements are reached but ultimately broken. "We're going to deliver a labor reform to the country, and we're going to do it starting at 9 a.m. Today we voted on seven articles, and we have 12 left. Tomorrow (Tuesday) there will be a session, and whether or not there are agreements, we're going to put them to a vote," the Senate president added.

For his part, the Minister of the Interior addressed President Petro's reaction on social media. He asserted that the president is not rejecting the overall proposal, but that there are still some points to consolidate. "From my perspective, if the House of Representatives has been progressive on labor rights, the Senate cannot be any less so," he stated.

Juan Sebastian Lombo Delgado