Colombia Employment Law

Employees are entitled to 15 consecutive working days of annual leave with full pay after 1 year of service. 

Employees who are professionals and assistants working in private companies which are dedicated to fighting against tuberculosis and are engaged in the application of X-rays shall be entitled to 15 days of paid vacation leave for every 6 months of service provided.

The employer must announce 15 days in advance, the date on which the vacation will be granted. If there is a justified interruption in the enjoyment of the holidays, the employee does not lose the right to resume them. Employer and employee may agree in writing, to be paid in money for up to half of the annual vacation upon request of the employee. For compensation in money for vacations, the last salary earned by the employee shall be taken as the basis.

Accumulation of leave – Employees are required to take at least 6 annual leave days a year. The rest of the vacation days may be accumulated for a period of 2 years based on agreement. If the employee only has 6 days of vacation in a year, it is presumed that they can accumulate the remaining days of vacation to the subsequent year.

The accumulation can be up to 4 years, in the case of technical, specialized, trustworthy, management or foreign employees who provide their services in places other than the residence of their relatives. 

Pay –  During the vacation period, the employee will receive the ordinary salary that starts accruing on the day they begin to enjoy the leave. Work on compulsory rest days and the value of supplementary work in overtime will be excluded in case of the settlement of vacations. In the case of variable salary, the vacation pay shall be settled with the average amount earned by the employee in the year immediately prior to the date on which they are granted.

Termination of Employment – Employees who cease to work or have terminated their employment contracts, without using their vacations for the completed year, will have the right to be compensated in money proportionally for the time actually worked. Substantive Labor Code, 1951 (Last amended 2021), no. 3,518, arts.186-192, Law No. 995 of 2005, art. 1.

An employee who has proven incapacity to work due to non-work-related illness shall be entitled to have the employer pay them a monetary aid up to 180 days, as follows: 

• 2/3rd of the salary for the first the 90 days and;
• half the salary for the remaining time. 

The employer pays for the first 2 days of the absence, the social security system for the remainder. From day 3 onwards, all payments are assumed by the social security system. wherein the employer pay from day 3 until day 180, with reimbursement from the social security system. If the illness or injury is work-related, the employee will receive 100 percent of salary from the social security system. Decree 2,943 of 2013, Substantive Labor Code, 1951 (Last amended 2021), no. 3,518, arts.227.

Every pregnant employee has the right to 18 weeks paid leave at the time of delivery, remunerated with the salary earned at the beginning of the leave. 

The maternity leave for mothers of premature children will take into account the difference between the gestational date and the full-term birth, which will be added to the 18 weeks. In the case of mothers with multiple births or mothers of a disabled child, the leave will be extended by 2 more weeks. 

All the provisions under maternity leave for the biological mother are extended in the same terms & duration to the adopting mother, or to the father who is left in charge of the newborn without support from the mother, be it due to illness, abandonment, or death, official delivery of the minor who has been adopted, or of the one who acquires custody just after the birth. 

The maternity leave is extended to the father in the event of the death, abandonment, or illness of the mother and the employer of the father of the child will grant the employee leave duration equivalent to the time remaining after the birth granted to the mother. Employees shall begin to enjoy the maternity leave 2 weeks before the probable date of delivery.

The employee must present the employer with a medical certificate, which must include, the pregnancy status, the indication of the probable day of delivery, and the indication of the day from which the leave must begin, bearing in mind that, at least, it must begin 2 weeks before delivery.

The employee who makes use of the leave at the time of delivery will take the 18 weeks of leave to which she is entitled, as follows:

• Prepartum Maternity leaves – This shall be taken 1 week prior to the probable due date of delivery. If for any medical reason the expectant mother requires an additional week prior to delivery, she may enjoy 2 weeks, with 16 weeks postpartum. If otherwise, for medical reasons the employee cannot take the week prior to delivery, they can enjoy the 18 weeks in the immediate postpartum period.
• Postpartum Maternity leaves – This leave shall be for a duration of 17 weeks from the date of delivery, or 16 or 18 weeks due to a medical decision stated above.

 Out of the 18 weeks of paid leave, the week prior to the probable delivery will be mandatory unless the treating physician prescribes something different. The paid leave is incompatible with the domestic calamity leave and if the latter has been requested for the birth of a child, the maternity leave days will be deducted from it. 

In the case of the working woman who for some reason does not enjoy the mandatory prepartum week, and/or some of the 17 weeks of leave, such employee shall be entitled to pay for the weeks that she did not enjoy the leave. In the case of multiple births, the employee shall have the right to pay for an additional 2 weeks and, in the event that the child is premature, to pay the difference in time between the date of delivery and the full-term birth.  

Paid rest in case of abortion

An employee who during the pregnancy suffers an abortion or a non-viable premature birth has the right to a paid leave of 2 or 4 weeks, that was earned at the time of starting the leave.

Breastfeeding Breaks: The employer is obliged to grant the employee 2 paid breaks, of 30 minutes each, within the day, to breastfeed her child, during the first 6 months of the birth of a child.  In addition, employers are required to grant a single paid break for lactation of 30 minutes a day until the minor reaches 2 years of age, as long as the working mother maintains and demonstrates adequate continuous breastfeeding. Substantive Labor Code, 1951 (Last amended 2023), no. 3,518, arts 236 – 238, 239(4).

Proposed Amendments – Adoptive Couples of the same sex shall have the same rights to enjoy paternity and maternity leave under the same conditions provided for adoptive heterosexual parental families.

A working father is entitled to 2 weeks of paid paternity leave. The paid paternity leave is available for the children born of the spouse or permanent partner, as well as for the adopting father. The only valid support for granting paid paternity leave is the Civil Birth Registry, which must be submitted to the EPS no later than 30 days after the child’s date of birth. Substantive Labor Code, 1951 (Last amended 2021), no. 3,518, arts 236 as amended by Law 2114 of 2021. 

Proposed Amendments – Gradually increased the duration of paid paternity leave to 6 weeks.

Parents may freely distribute among themselves the last 6 weeks of the mother’s leave. This leave, in the case of the mother, is exclusive of the breastfeeding break. Shared parental leave is governed by the following conditions –

• The time of shared parental leave will be counted from the date of delivery unless the treating physician has determined that the mother must take between 1 or 2 weeks of leave prior to the probable date of delivery or as by determination of the mother.
• The mother must take at least the first 12 weeks after delivery, which will be non-transferable. The remaining 6 weeks may be distributed between the mother and the father, by mutual agreement between the two parents.
• In no case may leave periods be fragmented, mixed/alternated, or taken simultaneously except for postpartum illness of the mother, duly certified by the doctor.

Shared parental leave shall also apply with respect to premature and adoptive children.

Pay – Shared parental leave will be remunerated based on the salary of the person enjoying the leave for the corresponding period.

Flexible Part-Time Parental Leave

The mother and/or father may opt for a part-time flexible parental leave, in which they may change a certain duration of their maternity or paternity leave for a part-time work period, equivalent to twice the time corresponding to the selected time period. This leave, in the case of the mother, is exclusive of the breastfeeding break.

Part-time flexible parental leave will be governed by the following conditions:

• Parents will be able to use this leave before week 2 of their paternity leave; mothers, no earlier than the 13 weeks of their maternity leave.
• Part-time flexible parental leave time will be counted from the date of delivery unless the treating physician has determined that the mother must take between 1 or 2 weeks of leave prior to the probable date of delivery. The periods selected for flexible parental leave cannot be interrupted and resumed later. They must be continuous, except in those cases in which there is an agreement between the employer and the employee.

Pay – Flexible part-time parental leave will be remunerated based on the salary of the person enjoying the leave for the corresponding period. The flexible part-time parental leave shall also apply with respect to premature and adoptive children. Substantive Labor Code, 1951 (Last amended 2021), no. 3,518, arts 236 paragraph 4-5.

An employee is entitled to 5 working days paid leave for the death of a spouse or permanent partner, a parent, a child, a sibling, a grandparent, a grandchild, a mother­ or father in law, a son­ or daughter in law, a stepchild or a stepparent. Substantive Labor Code, 1951 (Last amended 2021), no. 3,518, arts.57(10).

Employee shall be granted leave for voting during elections, for the performance of temporary official positions of forced acceptance; in the event of a duly proven serious domestic calamity, to carry out union commissions inherent to the organization or to attend the funeral of their colleagues, provided that they notify the employer or their representative in due time. 

In the case of trade union leave or funeral of colleagues, the number of absentees shall not be such that it shall harm the operation of the company. 

Unless otherwise agreed, the time spent on these leaves may be deducted from the employee’s working hours or compensated with an equal time of effective work in hours other than their ordinary working day, at the option of the employer. Substantive Labor Code, 1951 (Last amended 2021), no. 3,518, arts.57(6).