Paid leave in Colombia after the labor reform: bereavement, medical appointments and the new causes

In Colombia, the labor reform made several absences paid leave that employers must document and budget.

At Soulbit Academy we explain paid leave to employers: which leaves article 57 of the Colombian labor code recognizes today, how bereavement leave works, who bears the cost and what proof to keep. Here we cover paid leave; parental leave has its own articles. It does not repeat the overview in the Law 2466 employer checklist.

What Law 2466 changed in paid leave

Law 2466 of 2025 amended numeral 6 of article 57 of the Colombian labor code (CST in Spanish) and widened it to eight lettered paid leaves. The change is in article 15 of the law, in force since June 25, 2025, according to the official Law 2466 text.

Numeral 6 requires the employer to grant the paid leave needed in these cases:

• Voting, without prejudice to Law 403 of 1997 (letter a).
• Holding temporary official posts that must be accepted (letter b).
• Facing a serious, duly proven household emergency (letter c).
• Union commissions or attending a colleague's funeral (letter d).
• Urgent medical appointments or scheduled specialist appointments (letter e).
• School duties as a guardian (letter f).
• Judicial, administrative and legal summons (letter g).
• An agreed day of rest for cycling to work (letter h).

Letters e) to h) are the ones specialist press presents as new causes. Bereavement leave is not in numeral 6. It stays in numeral 10 of the same article, which the reform did not amend in the text reviewed.

Did the reform change bereavement leave?

Not in the text reviewed. Article 15 amends numeral 6 and adds numerals 13 to 17, but it does not mention numeral 10. Bereavement leave remains governed by Law 1280 of 2009: five working days. Always check whether a later rule changed it before you settle payroll.

Bereavement leave: five working days and degrees of kinship

Bereavement leave is five paid working days on the death of a spouse, permanent partner or a relative up to the second degree of blood, first of marriage and second civil. Law 1280 of 2009 originally listed the first civil degree in numeral 10 of article 57, but Constitutional Court ruling C-892 of 2012 extended it to the second civil degree.

The text sets three operating rules the employer should know:

• The leave applies whatever the type of contract or employment relationship.
• A serious household emergency does not include bereavement leave, so they are separate leaves.
• The fact is proven with a document from a competent authority within 30 days of its occurrence.

Second degree of blood covers parents, children, grandparents, grandchildren and siblings. First degree of marriage covers parents-in-law and sons and daughters-in-law. Second civil degree includes siblings and grandparents by adoption. Bereavement leave does not cover uncles, aunts or cousins. A death of an uncle or aunt may be assessed as a serious household emergency if its impact is proven: letter c) covers family events up to the third degree of blood, second of marriage or first civil. That assessment does not automatically grant the five bereavement days.

How are the five working days counted?

Law 1280 requires five working days but does not expressly set the first day of the count. An employer cannot shorten this right through its own policy. If the death occurs outside working hours or on a nonworking day, confirm the applicable approach with local labor counsel and record the dates granted.

The newer leaves: medical visits, school duties, summons and cycling

The four newer leaves are medical appointments, school duties as a guardian, judicial, administrative and legal summons, and the cycling day. Each has a different condition, and Table 1 summarizes them next to household emergency and bereavement, which are often confused with them.

Leave	Legal basis	Condition in the text	What the employer should file
Bereavement	Art. 57 num. 10 CST, Law 1280 of 2009	Five working days on the death of a relative in the listed degree	Competent authority document, within 30 days
Household emergency	Art. 57 num. 6 letter c) CST	Serious personal or family event, duly proven	Proof of the event and date of absence
Medical appointment	Art. 57 num. 6 letter e) CST	Urgent or scheduled specialist appointment, with prior certificate	Certificate from the health provider
School guardian duty	Art. 57 num. 6 letter f) CST	Attendance mandatory at the school's request	School summons or request
Judicial or administrative summons	Art. 57 num. 6 letter g) CST	Judicial, administrative and legal summons	Copy of the authority's summons
Cycling day	Art. 57 num. 6 letter h) CST	Agreed with the employer: one paid rest day per six months	Written agreement and proof of cycling use

Two nuances prevent application errors. First, the law sets no hour cap for the appointment, the school duty or the summons. It speaks of the paid leave needed, so the company can set a reasonable criterion in its internal rules, such as procedure time plus travel. Second, the text does not say whether the company may offset that time later. Until the Labor Ministry issues an opinion, do not assume it is allowed.

Is the cycling day half a day per 30 trips?

Its reach in the private sector is voluntary and still to be verified: the paragraph lets private employers adopt it but does not require it. That rule, half a paid day off for every 30 certified bicycle commutes, comes from article 5 of Law 1811 of 2016 and is aimed at public servants. Letter h) of the reform speaks of one paid rest day per six months of work, which employee and employer may agree.

The word "agree" matters. Unlike the other leaves, letter h) does not impose a unilateral duty: it opens an agreement. Put it in writing, with how bicycle use will be certified and how the day is scheduled.

Who pays each leave: the company and the health system

The employer pays article 57 leave at the employee's ordinary salary, because the law defines them as paid leaves and sets no reimbursement mechanism for them. This is a reading of the text, not a literal quote, and a local labor adviser should confirm it for your case.

The confusion comes from mixing them with absences that the health or occupational risk system does fund. Table 2 separates the three regimes payroll handles every day.

Absence	Who funds it	How it shows in cash
Article 57 leave (bereavement, medical visit, school duty, summons, cycling)	The company, through the employee's salary	Final cost: the text of the law has no reimbursement
Maternity and paternity leave	The EPS recognizes the benefit; the company usually fronts it	Recoverable advance, with a recognition filing
Sick leave for illness or accident	The health or occupational risk regime, by origin	Reconciled with the EPS or the ARL under their rules

A medical appointment is not sick leave. If the doctor orders rest, the employee is on sick leave and that absence follows sick-leave rules, with its own economic recognition. If the employee only attends a consultation or an exam, letter e) applies and the company bears the cost.

For parental leave, reimbursement and timelines are covered in maternity leave in Colombia and paternity leave in Colombia. They are not repeated here, because their mechanics are the opposite: the company advances and then recovers.

Does bereavement leave reduce vacation or deduct salary?

No. Bereavement leave is paid, so it is not deducted from salary or charged to vacation. The law defines it as its own leave, separate from household emergency. If the employee needs more days for a serious situation, the company can assess the household emergency with its proof, or agree an extra permission in writing.

How to document and record each leave in payroll

Each leave needs three items on file: the employee's request or notice, the proof the law requires and the payroll entry. Without proof, the company cannot show the absence was paid by legal mandate and not as a favor.

A simple procedure for a company with 10 to 100 employees in Colombia follows four steps:

1. Define in writing, in the internal rules or a policy, which leaves exist and what proof each requires.
2. Receive the request through a single channel, with date, hours or days and cause.
3. File the proof in the personnel file and restrict access, because medical certificates are sensitive information.
4. Record the entry in the period's payroll and reconcile hours or days with attendance control.

Since the leave is paid, the period's salary does not change and social security contributions are calculated on the salary earned. This is an inference from the paid nature of the leave. Ask your PILA operator and accountant which entry to report, as explained in PILA social security contributions in Colombia.

Leave also touches contract termination. An absence covered by article 57 cannot be treated as misconduct, and deducting it in the Colombian severance settlement exposes the company to claims. Review the history of entries before closing any settlement.

What it costs in practice: an example with assumptions

Article 57 leave costs the salary of the hours not worked: 7,252,748 pesos a year in the assumed example, near 0.4% of payroll. The case below is hypothetical, labels its assumptions and does not represent Soulbit prices or results.

Assumptions: a company with 50 employees, an average monthly salary of 3,000,000 Colombian pesos and 182 working hours per month. The hourly value is 16,484 pesos. If in one year 100 leaves of 4 hours were granted, across medical visits, school duties and summons, that is 400 hours. Their value is 6,593,407 pesos. Add five working days of one bereavement leave, which the assumption of 8 hours a day turns into 40 hours, or 659,341 pesos.

Under these assumptions the total is about 7,252,748 pesos a year, near 0.4 percent of an annual payroll of 1,800,000,000 pesos. The figure changes with real frequency, hours and salary.

How can a company budget these leaves without surprises?

Measure for one quarter the hours granted by cause and project the year from that average. Create a code by leave type in your payroll or attendance system, to separate bereavement from household emergency and a medical visit from sick leave. With that data, finance sizes the effect without generic estimates.

What Soulbit's V1 delivers and what it does not

Soulbit Salaries is the planned module for disbursing payroll, not a leave or attendance management system. The V1 covers balances in USDC and USDT, disbursement in stablecoin and in pesos over a local Colombian rail, recurring and batch payroll, institutional custody, KYB and AML/KYT monitoring.

What Soulbit does not do matters here. It does not grant or validate leave, track hours or attendance, settle PILA or define how an entry is recorded. It does not replace the accountant or the payroll software either. That responsibility stays with the company or its provider.

With leave already recorded, the company can include the net pay in Soulbit's batch disbursement. Its labor and social security obligations remain its own responsibility.