Both the introduction of new technologies into Colombia’s productive matrix as well as its economy´s nonstop modernization, result in the need of regulatorily addressing A.I. as an increasing phenomenon in Colombian industry.
Artificial Intelligence, seen by the European Parliament as a machine’s ability to deploy similar or equal capacities as those of human beings, such as reasoning, learning, creativity, and planning capability, has an immense potential to catalyze economic development to an extent never seen before, while also posing a challenge to one of society’s most important economic growth engines as well: human work.
The integration of Artificial Intelligence technologies involves the modernization of a Company’s corporate structure, through the automatization of certain productive processes previously developed by employees. In that sense, legislation should foresee proper employment protection mechanisms, in order to pace the introduction of new technologies and the maintenance of the employees’ working conditions.
However, according to Colombian Political Constitution’s 25th Article, employment (both as a right and a duty), is to be primarily safeguarded by the Government. Therefore, even if massive unemployment were the case (which is not necessarily caused by the implementation of new technologies), Colombian Employment Law would imminently tend to protect the fundamental rights of workers whose employability is challenged due to the implementation of A.I. in lieu of their job position.
That is precisely the interest of the Law Bill 200 of 2023, proposed by Chamber Representatives Karyme Cotes and Alirio Uribe, which intends to regulate Artificial Intelligence and establish limits to its development, use and implementation. The project, whose lecture was already published for its first debate, states the following:
“Article 12. Reinforced Work Stability. Any Company, whether public or privately owned, that intends to suppress job positions because of the use or implementation of Artificial Intelligence Systems, will have to relocate every employee who had previously worked in said position before its suppression in another job of the same or higher conditions within the same organization for a period of at least six (6) months. Once this period has expired, current Employment legislation will apply.”
Hence, the project seeks to establish what would be equivalent to a Reinforced Work Stability Assurance, to protect the employee against whom there could be an imminent endangerment to the employment contract’s subsistence, provided said endangerment encounters its origin in the implementation of Artificial Intelligence Systems in the workplace.
The Law Bill must still come through the entire legislative procedure to turn into a Statutory Law (which it may never become). The only certainty we have, is that in the meantime, new questions will surely arise: ¿What would result from weighing the “Reinforced Work Stability due to A.I. Implementation” and the free enterprise from a Constitutional point of view? ¿How effective is such a warranty, being the employer who finally decides whether the employee is protected, by introducing A.I. or not? ¿What impact would the warranty have on Colombia’s business network and its economic growth?
Including new prerogatives will always force the Congress to evaluate economic, social, and political factors in order to modulate the Bill’s content and in doing so, achieve harmonization between industrial development and employment rights. Therefore, we might be expecting new Reinforced Work Stability Warranties in the foreseeable future.
