Government accepts OECD recommendation: “That all unions negotiate at one table”

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) gave Colombia its go-ahead after a lengthy evaluation process to determine whether the country met the necessary requirements and could compete with other members for its socio-economic practices. The organization acknowledged that, despite the effects of the pandemic on the world economy, Colombia managed to cope with them and has shown a rapid recovery.

Although the report gave peace of mind, it also made several clarifications and recommendations. For example, he warned that it is important to seek long-term strategies that implement reforms to “expand social protection and boost productivity.” In addition, as mentioned by the Minister of Labour, Ángel Custodio Cabrera, one of the most important and which was positively accepted by Colombia, it is a question of implementing measures to stop the “union atomization”, that is, to get all unions to put together a single list of applications to make the process more efficient.

In this regard, the leader of the Labor portfolio added that this recommendation is due to the fact that in the country there are many trade union movements within a single organization, a fact that slows down the process for the parties and the possibility of reaching a fair agreement. This would ensure that “collective bargaining in the private sector would be assimilated to that of the public sector as majority and minority organizations would obtain the same benefits as negotiated”.

On the other hand, the OECD warned that Colombia increased its unemployment rate in recent years, if you look at it in detail, you can see that in February 2020 the country registered 11.3% while, for the same month in 2021, it reported 12.6%, which means an increase of 1.3%.

In more concrete figures, according to the OECD, Colombia has almost 3 million unemployed. This scenario would put the country in a picture that would not demonstrate a recovery in this regard. Comparing the figures of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development with those submitted by the Department of National Statistics, DANE, on unemployment in the country in the same month of February; although there was a reduction of 2.6 per cent, it still followed a rate of 12.9 per cent, which would show a great similarity as opposed to what was submitted by both agencies.

Other countries that recorded increases were Mexico with 3.7 per cent, Czech Republic with 2.4% and the United States with 0.4%. This means that Colombia was the third country with the highest unemployment figure last February, out of 38 member nations of the organization. In fact, the Banco de la República projects that figures for 2022 will remain in a range between 10% and 13%.

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