Labor Protection Standards for People with Diseases

EXECUTIVE DECREE NO. 45 OF APRIL 7, 2022, Which Regulates Article 5 of Law 59 of December 28, 2005, which Adopts Labor Protection Standards for People with Chronic, Involutive and/or Degenerative Diseases, as well as Chronic Renal Insufficiency, which produces Labor Disability:

It will have the following objectives:

• To protect the right to work of all workers or public servants who are diagnosed with chronic diseases that produce labor disability, in the sense that they will be able to maintain their job, in conditions equal to those they had prior to the diagnosis of their disease.
• Said worker shall not be subject to any discrimination, nor to any measures of pressure or persecution due these causes.

Relevant points:

• The Interdisciplinary Commission for Physical or Mental Certification (“The Commission”) is created, which among its most relevant functions will have to issue certification on the physical or mental condition of persons suffering from Chronic, Involutive and/or Degenerative Diseases, as well as Chronic Renal Insufficiency.
• The Commission will have the duty to keep an updated registry of the cases attended.
• The Commission will have an Executive Technical Secretariat that among its most outstanding responsibilities will have:
  • To Receive the applications for physical or mental certification.
  • To Register the files in the database.
  • To oversee, conserve and keep the documents, property and interests of the Commission entrusted to its custody, use or administration.
  • To manage appointments to the interested party in the application or to the Primary Care Physician
  • To generate periodic reports of the cases attended.
• The Commission will have the power to appoint, in a timely and periodic manner, the subcommittees of experts it deems pertinent, which will be made up of qualified specialists, with expertise in different disciplines of the medical sciences, so that they may verify the evidence provided by the affected party of any condition submitted for their consideration.
• Any private or public sector worker, head of the Human Resources Institutional Office or Personnel Manager or its counterpart, as the case may be, or employer, shall have the right to formally request in writing to the Commission, a certification on the physical or mental condition that determines whether the work disability suffered by the worker is partial or absolute and the type of disease he/she suffers from.
• Any worker above mentioned who has been fired or dismissed, as the case may be, suffering from a disease mentioned in this Decree, may request such certification, provided that he/she has filed the corresponding appeal for reconsideration and/or appeal.  In these cases, the worker or public servant shall remain in his/her position until the Commission rules on his/her condition, as stated in Article 5 of Law 59 of 2005, as amended by Law 25 of 2018.

In the event that you wish to receive additional information on Labor protection, the procedure for obtaining certification of Chronic, Involutive and/or Degenerative disease, as well as Chronic Renal insufficiency, which produces work disability, please do not hesitate to contact us at quijano@quijano.com.