Colombian President Alvaro Uribe proposed that the management of unemployment insurance be moved from the private to the public sector.
Uribe said that the State is not in a position to finance unemployment insurance. Colombians currently make contributions to private State-approved unemployment insurance agencies. Uribe is proposing cutting out the middle-man and creating unemployment insurance contributed to “by the workers, for the workers”.
The proposal will be presented to the Labor Agreement Committee on July 20.
Caracoltv.com reported that 2,471,000 people were unemployed in March of this year. In Medellin the unemployment rate was 18 percent and in Pereira 17.3 percent, as of March.