The Distortion Between the Law and Business Sustainability

Labor and Employment attorney Juan Pablo Colom wrote a column for Lexir analyzing the tension between Colombia's labor regulations and business sustainability, using the floriculture sector as a case study. Mr. Colom explains how the 23.7 percent minimum wage increase and the appreciation of the peso against the U.S. dollar have significantly increased personnel costs in a labor-intensive industry whose revenues are dollar-denominated, putting business viability – and therefore job preservation – at risk. The article contends that applying uniform labor rules to starkly different productive realities can create unequal effects and concludes that the challenge for companies is to design mechanisms that protect workers without disregarding the economic conditions that make employment possible.

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