Colombia: New employer obligations to prevent and report sexual harassment

Employer Action Code: Act

Law 2365 of 2024 imposes new requirements for employers to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace, protect victims of harassment and publicly report on the number of harassment complaints. The law, effective June 20, 2024, defines both sexual harassment and the workplace broadly. Sexual harassment includes any act of “persecution, stalking or harassment of a sexual nature or connotation,” which may or may not be connected with characteristics such as age, gender, sexual orientation/identity, race, ethnicity, nationality or religion. The workplace includes external work-related locations (e.g., business trip and external company event locations) as well as all forms of digital communication where the persons concerned are connected with work in some way, including interactions between workers, agents, employers, contractors and interns. The law tasks the government with publishing, by June 20, 2025, further regulations and guidelines on how companies can prevent sexual harassment.

Key details

All employers are required to implement measures to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace, and, in the event of a harassment complaint, to protect the complainant and any witness or whistleblower. The measures include:

• Creating and communicating widely an internal policy on the prevention of sexual harassment, which must be reflected in work rules and employment contracts
• Protecting complainants from further harassment or retaliation, including by allowing them to request a transfer to a different work area, to avoid tasks that involve interaction with the accused perpetrator and possibly to request to work remotely
• Informing the complainant of his or her right to go to the Attorney General's Office and, if requested by the complainant, immediately forwarding the complaint to the competent authority (the local district attorney) while respecting his or her right to privacy as well as to the Ministry of Labor if the complaint is against a “superior position” in the company
• Publishing the number of complaints processed, and sanctions imposed, every six months via the Ministry of Health and Social Protection’s Integrated Information System on Gender Violence

Complainants cannot be terminated within six months of making the sexual harassment complaint, subject to some exceptions. Alternatively, they are entitled to terminate their employment contract with immediate effect without penalty.

Employer implications

The requirement for companies to have policies and provisions for the prevention of workplace harassment is not uncommon globally, but the requirement for external reporting of the number of complaints is unusual. Companies should analyze the new requirements and update their internal employment policies and procedures accordingly.