Colombia: Court weighs Constitutionality of Special Decree declaring Telecom Services an Essential Public Function during COVID-19 Emergency

The Colombian Constitutional Court analysed Decree 555 in their decision C-209, 2020, as a result of the automatic constitutional review process over every decree issued by the government under the powers granted by Colombia’s Constitution during a state of economic, social and ecological emergency. Decree 555, issued by the Government during the last state of Economic, Social and Ecological Emergency, has a direct effect on labour, as it declared the telecommunication services as a public essential service. In the labour context, this express declaration automatically triggers a series of rules and restrictions regarding the right to strike in the telecommunication sector. In addition, Decree 555 aims at guarantying a minimum and permanent access to those services, even when the user does not pay for them in a timely fashion. Decree 555 is also well-defined; in that it clearly limits the effects of its intended purpose to the Sanitary Emergency declared in response to the COVID-19 crisis. The Court determined that the process used to issue Decree 555 was therefore legal. Furthermore, the substance of the decree passed each and every test that the Court applied to it, in order to determine its constitutionality, and found that it was indeed constitutional.

For additional information on any matter related to labor issues in Colombia, please contact Alejandro Castellanos (Partner) of López & Asociados at alejandro.castellanos@lopezasociados.net or visit www.lopezasociados.net

For more information please contact Joseph Granato, Communications Manager at L&E Global at joseph.granato@leglobal.org.