The Ministry of Labor Repeals 11 Labor Circulars
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1. What happened?
Through Resolution 2708 of August 20, 2026, the Minister of Labor repealed and rendered without effect 11 circulars issued between September 2025 and July 2026. Following a legal review, the Ministry concluded that several of these circulars exceeded their purely advisory function: they created obligations, procedures, evidentiary burdens, requirements, or punitive consequences without proper legal support, mixing binding rules with mere recommendations.
In some cases, the review even identified errors in regulatory references and infringements of fundamental rights, as occurred with the authorization — without legal basis — of entry into private homes in the context of labor inspections of domestic work.
You can review the full text of Resolution 2708 of 2026 or download it by clicking here.
2. The 11 Circulars That Were Repealed
Each of these circulars ceased to exist in the legal system as of today. Below is a summary of what each one regulated and why it was withdrawn:
Circular Externa 0101 of 2025 — working hours, domestic work, and overtime. It imposed a financial compensation formula for piece-rate work that has no basis in the law.
Circular Interna 0120 of 2025 — termination procedure for reinforced job stability. It created requirements and a procedure affecting employers without legal authorization to do so.
Circular 0031 of 2026 — care, gender equity, and social co-responsibility. It mixed recommendations with “guidelines” presented as mandatory, without distinguishing their legal force.
Circular Externa 0032 of 2026 — freedom of association and collective bargaining agreements. It classified certain conduct as anti-union, imposed the automatic prevalence of collective bargaining agreements over the law, and announced fines and referrals to the Attorney General's Office and the Public Prosecutor's Office without sufficient regulatory basis.
Circular 0040 of 2026 — working hours and overtime in private security and surveillance. It incorrectly generalized a legal exception, suggesting a total exclusion from the overtime regime that the law does not provide for.
Circular 0048 of 2026 — disciplinary due process and termination for just cause. It combined legal rules, case law, and recommendations without distinguishing which were mandatory.
Circular Interna 0049 of 2026 — termination procedure on health grounds. It established a special procedure and documentary burdens for employers without express legal basis.
Circular 0057 of 2026 — principles of the labor reform. It contained an inaccuracy regarding the scope of the Substantive Labor Code with respect to public-sector workers (“trabajadores oficiales”).
Circular 0086 of 2026 — inspection of digital delivery platforms. It allowed inspectors to determine the existence of an employment relationship, a function that falls exclusively to judges.
Circular 0088 of 2026 — single list of union requests and bargaining committee. It incorrectly cited the applicable decree and improperly extended a Constitutional Court rule to different circumstances.
Circular 0089 of 2026 — inspection of paid domestic work. It authorized entry into private homes without the employer's consent, with no legal basis supporting that exception to the inviolability of the home (Art. 28 of the Constitution).
3. What does this mean for your company?
These 11 circulars can no longer be invoked — by authorities or third parties — as grounds to demand obligations, requirements, procedures, evidentiary burdens, or sanctions from your company.
The repeal operates prospectively: it does not automatically void proceedings or actions already carried out under those circulars, but it changes the applicable rules from today forward.
From now on, any analysis of these matters must be based directly on the Constitution, the law, current regulations, and applicable case law — not on the repealed circulars.
The underlying legal obligation does not disappear: what changes is the instrument that supported it. The Ministry has 10, 15, and 30 business-day deadlines (depending on the matter) to assess whether to issue new, legally appropriate instruments.
4. What your company should do now
Review your internal protocols: manuals, policies, formats, and HR guidelines built on these circulars (termination procedures for reinforced job stability or health reasons, working hours and overtime, disciplinary due process, inspections of domestic work or digital platforms).
Update regulatory references: cite the law and current case law directly in your internal documents, instead of the repealed circulars.
Suspend formulas inherited from Circular Externa 0101 of 2025: do not use its piece-rate compensation methodology as an independent basis for payment or settlement.
Consult before deciding: if you have ongoing termination proceedings for workers with reinforced job stability, disciplinary proceedings, or active inspections, confirm the new applicable framework with your legal team before proceeding.
Stay informed: the Ministry will issue new instruments in the coming weeks on freedom of association, digital platforms, piece-rate compensation, and domestic work. We will be monitoring these developments.
5. Our Recommendation
This is a good time for a quick labor compliance audit, since several internal practices may have been built on criteria that have now lost validity. We are glad to support your company in reviewing its protocols and adapting its processes to this new regulatory landscape.
WRITTEN BY: LENY CORTEZ
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