The reforms to the Social Security System that are currently under discussion in the Congress of the republic have the opportunity to change the lives of the nearly 13 million Colombians who live in daily rummage, the 5.4 million older adults who were unable to generate economic conditions during their productive stage that guarantee their basic needs are met, and the future older adults who hope to have an old age protection system.
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This is also the opportunity for the 51 million Colombians in the more than 1,100 municipalities of the country, regardless of where they are within our vast geography, to have access to a social security system that allows them to protect themselves in health, at work and in old age. This package of reforms should allow the State, with the participation of individuals, as ordered by the Constitution, to progressively expand the coverage of social security, an inalienable right of Colombians.
We have been discussing these reform proposals for several months and I celebrate it as a Democrat, but the debate needs to move towards the construction of solutions, and these must start from recognizing the current state of the social security system with its advances and deficiencies, as well as Challenges incorporate futures of the system.
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Today I would like to focus on the Colombian labor market. This reform should revolve around two major structural problems: first, the high unemployment rate, which exceeds 10 percent and which has been structurally high when compared to middle-income countries such as Colombia, and second, the very high rate of informality in the country, which reaches 58 percent and is the second highest in Latin America. This, in a few words, means that the social security system is supported by contributions from a minority of the population that has access to a formal job.
Unfortunately, the paper for the first debate on the labor reform filed this week in the Seventh Committee of the House of Representatives still does not propose solutions to these structural problems of the working market.
A proposal that should be incorporated into the debate and that is inspired by the 2019 Employment Mission and the studies of the Private Competitiveness Council in collaboration with various business sectors is the creation of a ‘Special Work Unit -UTE’. The UTE would make it possible to offer and demand work units, so that workers can make their need to generate income compatible with the development of other activities such as study, vocations, care activities, etc. And that the beneficiaries can generate formal employment for special cases associated with seasonal dynamics of activities such as tourism, agriculture, entertainment, commerce, among others. With the creation of formal work that can be divided into time, access to the labor market could be given, guaranteeing the coverage of the necessary protections, to many people who cannot or do not want to offer all their time to the labor market.
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On the other hand, the latest report from the World Economic Forum on the future of employment (2023), the progress in technological adoption and the growing digitization positively drive the creation of new jobs. The new technological developments will modify the labor dynamics and young people will have to retrain in new skills in artificial intelligence, big data, analytical thinking and new knowledge in designs, which will set the trend in the medium and long term. These new dynamics require another type of labor relations with the workers. The report estimates that only 10 percent of Colombian companies have the economic capacity to invest in training their employees. For this reason it is necessary that, from now on, the reforms contemplate these new challenges for the generation of new formal jobs. The role and commitment of the Government is fundamental in the generation of capacities that allow young people to adapt to these new dynamics of the labor market.
The change should be for those Colombians who do not have access to a formal employmentfor those who do not have occupational risk coverage, who cannot contribute or save to protect themselves in old age, who cannot contribute to the financing of a better health system and, in general, for all those who are not covered by the social protection system.
Change must be for everyone!
