The articles establish the conditions for contracting with small producers, as well as rules for contributing to the social security system for short periods.
The Fifth Committee of the House of Representative approved this Tuesday in the first debate and with 16 votes in favor, bill 531 of 2021, presented for “the dignity of work in the agricultural sector and of small peasant workers.”
The 15-article proposal introduces rules for the work contract with small producers: “There is a work contract between a small or medium agricultural or agroforestry producer and a small rural agricultural worker, provided that he or she agrees verbally or in writing to carry out activities, tasks or labors of the field, in favor of the former and under their dependence, in order to receive remuneration for their work ”, would be added to the Substantive Labor Code.
While the intermediation and outsourcing “of companies that provide small peasant workers to carry out activities included in this law” is prohibited, the figure of a part-time or temporary contract is contemplated for “productive agricultural activities of a cyclical or seasonal nature, or due to temporary processes typical of agricultural activity ”.
Among the novelties would also be the creation of a National Registry of Small Peasant Workers in the Ministry of Labor, in order to prove this situation.
Regarding social security, it proposes: “The National Government should consider as priority and special beneficiaries of the subsidized regime the small peasant workers referred to in this law.”
And it adds: “The agricultural producers who link small peasant workers for periods of less than a month, must make their affiliation and contribution to the Pension, Occupational Risk and Family Subsidy Systems in the terms established by law.”
“The bill is aimed at two different populations: on the one hand, small agricultural workers who receive less than two minimum monthly wages for their work and constitute an approximate bulk of 2 and a half million people; and on the other hand, small and medium agricultural producers, these are the ones who hire workers to carry out agricultural activities, have land and have a net worth in the previous year of less than a thousand minimum wages, “said the representative for the Quindío Luciano Grisales, president of the Fifth Commission of the Chamber and author and speaker of the initiative.
