Trade Union “Labor organizations”

"The labor trade union, is a workers

association (organization), constituted
for the development and defense of
the labor interests, also for being a
channel of communication of the
requests or requirements of its
members in front the employer."
Labor Trade Union Classes in COLOMBIA

artículo 356 del

CST

Base Union or
Classes

company.
1´st grade
Industry Union

Guild Union

Multiples trades
Union

2
 Clases
Labor de Union
Trade Sindicato
Classesen
in COLOMBIA
COLOMBIA
Legal persons that are constituted
from the union of 10 Trade
UNIONS

They advise unions in collective

bargaining

Serve as a disciplinary appeal

Classes

court in the decisions of union

members
2nd Grade Federations
Federal Board of Directors

Control: Labor judges

Municipal, Departmental,
National, Industry and Trade
Unions
Clases de Sindicato en COLOMBIA
Labor Trade Union Classes in COLOMBIA

Mínimum 20
federations .
Classes

Grouping National
3rd Grade Confederations
Unions

Political representation
of workers.
COEXISTENCE OF UNIONS MULTI-AFFILIATION

Corte Constitucional: SENTENCIA C-567 del año 2000 Corte Constitucional: SENTENCIA C- 797 del año 2000
Inexequible los numerales 1 y 3 del artículo 357 del CST Inexequible el artículo 360 del CST

Today in Colombia all unions with more than 25 members can A worker can simultaneously join more than one union of
coexist in the same company; The workers of these companies the same class or activity.
can simultaneously join several trade union organizations.
CREATION AND DISSOLUTION OF
TRADE UNIONS
 • Mínimum of 25 members for existence
• Is required a founding act
• This document, list the workers who participated in
the creation of the union organization.
Legal aspects

Game rules

The bylaws must be discussed and

approved.
¿How to créate an unión trade?

Quórum approval

Meeting minutes signed

approve statutes
by attendees; creation of
Assembly; Minimum union trade statutes.
of 25 workers.
Choose board
Union trade
records to
Assembly record “Ministerio del
Trabajo”

(5)
business days

Deposit records in Send communication to the

employer about the act of
Union Registry.
incorporation and
registration.
 Meeting of a number not less than 25 to be
constituted or subsist, to sign the Constitution Act:

1) Name and address of the trade union

2) Principal object.
3) Conditions of admission or affiliation.
4) Obligations or duties and rights of the associates.
5) Board of directors and claims commission,
Foundation act requirements and composition of the same.
requirements 6) Fee that each affiliate must pay.
7) Prohibitions and sanctions.
8) Ordinary Assembly and Extraordinary Meeting
Date.
9) Budget requirements.
10) Requirements and special causes to liquidate
the union. Board or assembly.
Legal status of trade unions

• Any trade union “organization of workers” by the sole fact of its foundation, and
from the date of the constitutive assembly, has legal personality.
• In order to function legally, the union needs to be constituted as a legal entity
and the Substantive Labor Code calls it Legal Status.
• What is the registration procedure?
Foundation act.
Approval of the association's statutes and appointment of management
personnel.

• What is the deposit?

File the extract of the minutes of the founding assembly with the names of
the directors or founders, with the aforementioned requirements before the
Ministry of Labor.
Dissolution and liquidation of labor trade unions

Grounds for
dissolution
Procedure for dissolution of a labor trade union

• The Ministry of Labor; for violation of the legal norms that regulate
the performance of the trade union and when the organization have
Legitimation in the not obeyed the recommendations, requirements or requests made
case • The employer, Who has legal interest for it.

• Art. 380 of the CST; always before a Labor Judge.

• The judge, no later than the following day, must order a notification
and transfer to the labor trade union by “personal notification”.
• If personal notification is not possible, within the next 5 days a
Competition and communication must be send to the union’s trade address; If it is not
procedure achieved, it must be notified by edict for a term of 5 days; Once
these days have elapsed, the notification will be understood to have
been fulfilled.
• The union has 5 days to answer the demand.
• The judge will decide within five days.
• The judge's decision is appealable in suspensive effect before the
respective Superior Court of the Judicial District, which must decide
within the following 5 days.
LABOR UNION LEGAL PROTECTION MEASURES
Art. 405 CST
It is called “union jurisdiction” the
guarantee that some workers have that they
will not be fired or have their working
conditions unimproved, nor transferred to
other establishments of the same company or
to a different municipality, without just
cause, previously qualified by the judge. of
work."
CLASES DE FUERO
From the day of its constitution until two (2) Two (2) months after registration
Founders months after its registration in the union
registry, without exceeding six (6) months
in the union registry, not to exceed
six (6) months

Two (2) months after registration

Workers who, before to registration in the
Adherents union register, join the union
in the union registry, not to
exceed six (6) months

Protection
The members of the board of directors and
This protection will be effective
sub-directors of every union, federation or
Directors confederation of unions, without going
for the duration of the mandate
and six (6) more months.
beyond five (5) main and five (5) alternates

Claims Two (2) of the members of the statutory For the same period of the board
claims commission, designated by the of directors and for six (6) more
Commission unions months
 The expansion of the figure of the union
jurisdiction extends not only to the validity of
the labor bond, but also the category of
workers who have the possibility of joining
UNION unions in view of their conditions and
PROTECTION workplace.
COVERAGE This when the article 39 superior indicates the
universal quantifier. "All" also imposed the
burden on all employers to submit to judicial
qualification not only the decision to dismiss
workers with jurisdiction, but also the decision
to worsen working conditions or apply a
transfer as such.
 REQUIREMENTS TO MAKE DETERMINATIONS ON UNION
JURISDICTION

Article 408 CST. The judge will deny the permission that the employer has requested to dismiss a
worker protected by union jurisdiction, or to impair it, transfer it, if it does not prove just cause.
If, in the case of the first paragraph of article 118 of the Labor Procedure Code, it is found that
the worker was fired without being subject to the norms that regulate the union jurisdiction, his
reinstatement will be ordered and the employer will be ordered to pay him, by title severance pay,
the wages not received due to the dismissal.
GROUNDS FOR JUDICIAL AUTHORIZATION
he definitive liquidation or closure of the company or
establishment and the total or partial suspension of
activities by the {employer} for more than one hundred
twenty (120) days, and
They are just causes for the Judge
to authorize the dismissal of a
worker protected by union
jurisdiction
The causes listed in articles 62 and 63 of the Substantive
Labor Code to terminate the contract. (Disciplinary
Grounds)
TERMINATION OF THE CONTRACT WITHOUT
PRIOR JUDICIAL QUALIFICATION.
Articulo 411 CST.

The termination of the work contract for the

performance of the contracted work, for the
execution of the accidental, occasional or
transitory work, by mutual consent or by
judgment of the competent authority, does
not require prior judicial qualification of the
cause in any case.
CIRCUMSTANCIAL protection

¿What it´s the circumstancial

protection?
Circumstantial protection is a
mechanism enjoyed by workers who
present a petition to their employer
that prevents the latter from
dismissing them without just cause
within the validity of the collective
conflict.
 The legal source of circumstantial protection is
Articles 25 of Decree 2351 of 1965 and Article 10
of Decree 1373 of 1966.
The circumstantial jurisdiction covers workers who
¿WHO ARE have submitted to the employer a list of petitions
that includes union members or non-union
COVERED? members.
It also protects non-unionized workers who present
a list of petitions for the signing of a collective
agreement.
SCOPE OF PROTECTION
Circumstantial protection limits not to be fired without just
cause. If the employer considers there is a just cause, he
should not go before the labor judge to request permission
to terminate the employment contract.

The qualification and existence of the jurisdiction is

determined after the termination of the employment
relationship within the process.
Thanks