Disciplinary Process One Year After the Labor Reform: More Guarantees or Risk of Abuse of Right?

Labor and employment attorney Ana María Cubillos wrote a column for El Heraldo on the impact of formalizing the disciplinary process in the private sector one year after the entry into force of Law 2466 of 2025. The attorney highlights that, although the law incorporated jurisprudential standards and established procedural guarantees for workers, Circular 048 of 2026 from the Ministry of Labor exceeded its guiding function by setting requirements that do not stem from the current legal framework, giving the procedure an excessively formalist character. She also warns that requirements such as the minimum five-business-day period for the disciplinary hearing limit the employer's ability to respond to urgent situations and strain the principle of immediacy, so the challenge consists of strengthening procedural rigor without formalities becoming a means to evade labor responsibilities.

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