Colombia completes reduction of working week to 42 hours: implications for businesses and lessons for Costa Rica

From a business perspective, the change calls for a review of the relationship between available time, productivity, operational coverage and labour costs.

A six-hour reduction in the working week represents 12.5% of the original 48-hour week. If wages remain unchanged, the wage cost per available ordinary working hour rises by approximately 14.29%.

This calculation helps quantify one of the reform’s direct economic consequences, although the ultimate impact depends on each company’s structure and its ability to reorganise processes.

Flexible working hours as a tool for adaptation

One notable aspect of Colombian legislation is that it provides for different ways of organising working time.

These include flexible working hours, which allow the 42-hour week to be spread over five or six days by agreement between employer and worker.

Subject to the statutory conditions, the working day may range from a minimum of four consecutive hours to a maximum of nine, without automatically triggering overtime premiums, provided the applicable limits and requirements are met.

There are also specific shift-work arrangements, including options for activities that require operational continuity.

These alternatives offer some scope to adapt schedules to business needs, particularly when demand for services varies during the week.

However, flexibility requires planning and clear agreements.

In Colombia, the so-called “results-based working day” is not a standalone legal concept that allows employers to dispense with monitoring working time.

A company may organise certain activities around targets or results, but it must continue to comply with statutory limits on working hours, rest periods, overtime pay and the rules on the right to disconnect from work.

This warrants particular attention at technology companies, shared services centres and regional operations, where performance is often assessed against targets.

The risk arises when assigned targets systematically require more time than the ordinary working week allows.

In such cases, an apparent productivity gain may be accompanied by unrecognised overtime, evidentiary difficulties and potential employment claims.

Companies with continuous operations face greater challenges

Claudia’s account highlights significant differences between sectors.

Companies with administrative functions or professional services may find it easier to reschedule meetings, eliminate low-value activities or redistribute tasks.

The situation is different when a business needs to maintain a certain level of coverage for many hours a day or operate around the clock.

In manufacturing, for example, production lines may need to run continuously for 16 or 24 hours. A reduction in working hours requires a review of rotations, handovers and the time allocated to cleaning, maintenance, quality checks and shift changes.

In healthcare, patient care requires staff to be available for continuous periods. Shift changes and the handover of clinical information must be factored into the planning of actual working time.

In private security services, contracted coverage may need to be maintained for 24 hours, even though each worker has fewer ordinary working hours per week. This puts pressure on staffing levels, replacement costs and commercial rates.

Shared services centres, business process outsourcing (BPO) companies and contact centres face an additional challenge: they often have to meet service levels agreed with clients in other jurisdictions.

In these operations, reducing individual working hours may require adjustments to team allocation, service hours, productivity metrics and employment arrangements.

There is also a risk worth considering: trying to offset the reduction in working hours by excessively intensifying work.

Maintaining the same workloads, deadlines and targets without reviewing processes can increase fatigue, staff turnover and psychosocial risks.

Planning should therefore account both for service continuity and for teams’ actual capacity to meet their responsibilities within the new schedule.

The economic impact also depends on overtime and premiums

The reduction in working hours in Colombia coincides with other regulatory changes affecting operating costs.

Law 2466 of 2025 amended the rules on night work, which begins at 19:00 from 25 December 2025.

It also introduced a phased increase in the premium for work on mandatory rest days, which rose to 90% in July 2026 and will reach 100% in July 2027 under the statutory timetable.

The combination of these measures is particularly relevant to companies operating at night, on weekends or on public holidays.

A company may face fewer ordinary working hours per worker, a higher relative cost per hour and increased premiums for certain types of work at the same time.

In this context, systematically relying on overtime to offset the reduction may prove costly and create additional compliance risks.

The effects on commercial contracts based on previous cost structures should also be considered.

A security, maintenance or outsourced services company that has committed to providing a fixed number of coverage hours may struggle to maintain its margins if the contract price does not include appropriate adjustment mechanisms.

In practice, this often means assessing options such as reorganising shifts, hiring staff, automating tasks, renegotiating commercial terms or changing certain processes.

The solution will depend on the nature of the operation and the applicable legal and contractual constraints.

Monitoring working time and the right to disconnect: two issues requiring particular attention

One of the main lessons from Colombia’s experience concerns the difference between scheduled working hours and time actually worked.

Reducing the hours set out in a contract or internal policy is not enough if people continue attending meetings, answering emails, preparing reports or handling requests after their working day ends.

Colombian legislation expressly recognises the right to disconnect from work under Law 2191 of 2022.

This regulation should be considered alongside the provisions on working hours and overtime.

It is also necessary to distinguish between a general expectation of availability and situations in which a worker is subject to restrictions that effectively limit the use of their personal time.

Depending on the specific circumstances, availability may have implications for the recognition of working time and overtime.

Companies should therefore maintain records of scheduled hours, agreed changes, hours actually worked and activities performed outside ordinary working hours.

Flexible working arrangements in particular require coordination between supervisors, Human Resources and payroll teams.

An informal change to working hours or subsequent time off in lieu could lead to disputes if records do not show how the working day was organised and carried out in practice.

Companies with regional structures should pay attention to requests from other jurisdictions, particularly when time differences lead to meetings or demands outside local working hours.

What can Costa Rica learn from Colombia’s experience?

As a general rule, Costa Rica has a maximum ordinary daytime working day of eight hours and a 48-hour working week, with different limits for night and mixed shifts and exceptions provided for by law.

Colombia, by contrast, completed its transition to a maximum ordinary working week of 42 hours in July 2026.

This difference should be taken into account when the same organisation manages staff in both countries.

However, I believe the main value of Colombia’s experience for Costa Rica lies in observing how a change to working time affects business decisions that may initially seem unrelated to legal matters.

Reducing working hours requires a review of processes, performance metrics, supervision models, task allocation and monitoring systems.

It may also affect hiring needs, the organisation of rest periods and the cost structure.

A Costa Rican company considering a voluntary reduction in working hours would first need to assess whether its operations can maintain service levels with fewer hours available and what the economic consequences of that decision would be.

Three points in particular should be borne in mind.

First, assess operations before changing schedules. The reduction should be preceded by an analysis of workloads, peak demand periods, coverage needs and activities that can be reorganised.

Second, review the legal consequences of the new arrangements. In Costa Rica, work exceeding the agreed ordinary working hours or applicable statutory limits may give rise to overtime obligations. A voluntary reduction should therefore be designed with particular attention to contracts, internal policies and systems for monitoring working time.

Third, ensure that targets are compatible with the time available. Maintaining the same operational demands without adjusting resources or processes may result in some work being performed outside scheduled hours.

This last point is particularly relevant to companies that use results-based management models or have teams reporting to regional structures.

Colombia’s experience also prompts reflection on the relationship between productivity and employee wellbeing.

A shorter working week may support rest, work-life balance and physical and mental recovery. However, these benefits may be limited if the reduction is accompanied by excessive work intensification or a constant expectation of availability.

Business planning largely determines the outcome

Colombia has completed a significant regulatory transition, although its economic, employment and productivity effects still require monitoring and assessment.

The experience points to several conditions that can help companies adapt: advance planning, flexibility within legal limits, process reviews, reliable working-time records and coordination between operations, finance and Human Resources.

Multinational companies should also avoid automatically applying a single regional working-hours policy without taking account of the legal particularities of each jurisdiction.

A corporate decision to reduce working hours or harmonise employment conditions may have different consequences depending on the country, the existing contractual or statutory working hours and the nature of the activities.

I would recommend assessing the legal, economic and operational effects of any significant change to working hours jointly before deciding how to implement it.

Colombia’s experience offers a useful reference for Costa Rican companies: reducing working time can create opportunities to improve work organisation and wellbeing, provided planning supports productivity, ensures compliance with legal obligations and preserves business continuity.

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