Gustavo Petro spoke about labor reform: “it’s about the dignity of the worker”

President Gustavo Petro, in front of thousands of Colombians who responded to his invitation and arrived at the Plaza de Aarmas de la Casa de Nariño to support the reforms of the national government, shed light on the labor reform project that he will present to the Congress of the Republic and with which he seeks to improve the conditions of workers in Colombia.

“The reform that we are going to present to this law 50 deals with the dignity of the worker and the worker, it deals with the stability of work, it is that if the world of work is more stable, the companies are more stable, the worker and the worker They come to love the business they don’t own, they come to bring their life to a more stable enrichment which should distribute itself in better wages and better profits. Profit and wages are not a zero-sum game. In capitalism, both can still grow, if knowledge is linked to production and we will present a university and knowledge-based labor reform,” President Petro said.

For this, the reform will seek that the working day ends at 6:00 p.m. and that those who work after this hour receive additional remuneration. It would be the same for those who work on Saturday and Sunday.

“What do we want in labor reform? Let the day end at six o’clock in the evening. We want there to be a Saturday and a Sunday, which are considered rest days, and therefore, when you work after six o’clock, or when you work on a Saturday and a Sunday, there is overtime . “We want job stability in Colombia. Who told big business in this country that a more productive business could be built on the basis of turning workers into slaves?” President Petro began, making reference to reform.

He immediately warned, to criticize the contracts for the provision of services, that productivity and wealth do not arise from the intensification of the working day, but from the articulation of knowledge with production. He also referred to the index of abnormal working conditions in which, among the countries of the OECD — an organization of which Colombia is a member — Colombia occupies, along with Turkey, the last places.

“Capitalism does not develop on the basis of slave labour, it is an anachronism. Productivity does not arise from the lengthening of the working day, it does not arise from the intensification of people’s work, it arises from the articulation of knowledge with production. This path, which was that of the 19th century, is the one that we are made to follow now in Colombia: to lead people into slavery. It came out the index of abnormal working conditions of lengthening the working day in OECD countries and, what a pity!, Colombia was in last place with Turkey, that is to say that of the OECD countries we are the societies in those which most exploit the worker, who is the one who produces the wealth”.

The president also said that the real path to the expansion of capitalism goes through “the expansion of knowledge and knowledge”, for which he stressed that for this it is necessary to allow and guarantee the access of young people to education, so that this knowledge, related to the machine, Increased productivity:

“The real path to the expansion of capitalism is through the expansion of knowledge and therefore ensuring that all young people can study and connect this knowledge to the machine, which increases productivity, but not in Colombia or even that capitalism be seen, in Colombia the simplest thing was to put three-month contracts through which they abuse the work and sexually abuse the women of Colombia who want to work”.

The Head of State also pointed out that the same system that precarious workers with three-month service delivery contracts has had an impact on the increase in violence against women in the workplace. . He even echoed, without going into too much detail, the complaints that have been aired about alleged acts of harassment and gender-based violence against women to renew or sign contracts:

“A macho society that makes machismo translate into capitalism of the worst kind, because now the employer has in his hands the stability of employment for women, how is that? You only have to see the public offices, but also, and here you are not counting, the private factories to observe on a daily basis how women are subjected to the help of their labor needs, because a labor reform of the year 93 or 94 condemned her to be submissive, he condemned her, through the boss, to three-month contracts, he led her to domination, not only of the man , but from the boss. I’m giving you this three-month contract, but if this and this and this doesn’t happen, there won’t be a new contract. This is not called dignity, this is not how productivity is built, this is how a nation does not build its wealth, productivity is born in the 21st century from knowledge and not from the exploitation of work “.