Employment contract in Colombia: types, probation and the 42-hour week

An employment contract in Colombia is indefinite unless there is a good reason, written down, for it to be something else. Art. 47 of the Labour Code, as rewritten by Ley 2466 de 2025, states that workers are hired on indefinite-term contracts (contrato a término indefinido) and treats fixed-term, project and occasional contracts as exceptions.

Behind that rule sits a broader presumption. Art. 24 of the Labour Code (Código Sustantivo del Trabajo) goes further: whenever a person works for another in person, the law assumes a contract of employment, and it is the business that has to prove otherwise. Calling an arrangement a services agreement does not change what it is if the person works under instruction, in person, for pay.

For most foreign companies hiring their first people in Colombia, the indefinite contract is the right tool anyway. It carries no renewal dates to track, it suits a permanent role, and its exit cost is predictable. The choice that needs more thought is usually what goes into it, not which type to use.

Fixed terms still have a place: cover for a specific absence, a role funded for a set period, or a first engagement where both sides want a natural review point. The mistake is to use a fixed term as a cheaper or more flexible version of a permanent job. It is neither, as the sections below show, and the four-year cap introduced in 2025 now stops a fixed term from rolling over year after year for a role that never ends.

CST art. 39 lists what a written employment contract must state. Treat the list as a floor: a contract that covers only these points will still leave open questions in its first year.

• The identity and domicile of both parties, and the place and date of signature.
• Where the person was hired and where the work will be done.
• The nature of the work.
• Pay: the amount, how it is paid and how often, plus any part paid in kind.
• Duration, and how the contract can end.

A useful contract goes further than the legal minimum. Write the probation period in, since without a written clause there is none. Add the intellectual-property clause. Works and inventions produced on the job are presumed to pass to the employer as far as their economic rights go, and that presumption depends on a written contract. Add confidentiality, which binds during employment and gives a just cause for dismissal if trade secrets are disclosed.

If any payment is meant to sit outside salary, say so expressly. Under CST art. 128, benefits the parties agree in writing are not salary do not count as salary; anything paid regularly as direct reward for work does count, whatever it is called. And if the job will be done from home, the telework terms should be signed with it, as part of the same set of documents, on day one.

Fixed terms (contrato a término fijo) exist only on paper: an unwritten or defective one counts as indefinite from day one. The reform added a hard ceiling: four years in total, renewals included, counted from 25 June 2025 for contracts already running on that date.

Renewal rules are precise. Where the agreed term is less than twelve months, the parties can sign as many renewals as they wish, but from the fourth renewal onward each renewal must run for at least a year. If neither side gives notice at least 30 days before expiry, the contract renews automatically for the same term, and the fourth automatic renewal of a short contract is for a full year.

Project-based hiring (contrato por obra o labor) links the job to a defined piece of work, and the contract has to describe that work exactly. Keep the person working once the project is over and the law rewrites the contract as indefinite, back to its first day, so a vague description is a liability rather than a convenience.

However brief the term, both types earn vacation, prima, cesantías and interest pro rata. A three-month contract is not a cheaper contract, only a shorter one. Cutting one short without just cause means paying what the remaining term was worth (at least 15 days on a project); our guide to termination in Colombia has the details.

A probation period (período de prueba) exists only if the contract says so in writing. The maximum is two months. Where a fixed term runs under twelve months, the trial period is limited to a fifth of it: on a six-month fixed term, roughly 36 days is the ceiling.

Within the trial period, employer and employee alike may walk away on any day, with neither notice nor indemnity owed. The worker still has every benefit of an employee: salary, contributions, and the proportional prima and cesantías.

Probation cannot be used twice with the same person. Where an employer signs successive contracts with one worker, only the first may include a trial period, which matters if you start someone on a short fixed term and later move them to an indefinite contract. Plan the probation into the first document, because there is no second chance.

Use the period for what it is for. Set clear objectives in the first week, review progress at the mid-point and decide before the last day. A decision taken a day late falls outside probation, and the ordinary termination rules, including the indemnity for dismissal without just cause, apply from then on.

Since 15 July 2026 the standard Colombian week has been 42 hours, the last step of the gradual reduction Ley 2101 de 2021 started in 2023. Pay may not be cut as a result. A contract signed today should state 42 hours, or fewer, and the daily limit of eight ordinary hours.

Employer and employee choose between a five-day and a six-day pattern, and a rest day is always kept. Days may also vary between four and nine hours across up to six days with no overtime due, provided the week averages 42 hours, which suits teams that want a short Friday.

• Day work runs from 06:00 to 19:00 and night work from 19:00 to 06:00, a change in force since 25 December 2025.
• Ordinary night work carries a 35% surcharge; daytime overtime 25%; night overtime 75%.
• No more than 2 hours of overtime a day, or 12 in a week, and every extra hour goes into a register the worker may ask to see.
• Sundays (or the agreed rest day) and public holidays: 90% extra since 1 July 2026, moving to 100% on 1 July 2027.

For staff working with colleagues in another time zone, the 19:00 boundary matters more than it looks, and it is worth writing the expected core hours into the contract so both sides know where the line sits. A daily call at 19:30 Bogotá time is night work, and if it pushes the day past eight hours it is night overtime at 75%.

Most contracts use an ordinary salary, paid in pesos at least monthly, with the statutory prima, cesantías and interest on top. The 2026 minimum wage (SMMLV) is COP 1,750,905 a month, and no full-time contract may go below it.

Senior hires can be offered an all-inclusive salary (salario integral) instead. The agreement has to be written, and the amount must cover 10 SMMLV plus a benefits factor of 30% or more, so the floor is 13 SMMLV: COP 22,761,765 monthly this year. In exchange, no separate prima, cesantías, interest or surcharges for nights, overtime, Sundays and holidays are paid. Vacation survives.

Moving an existing employee to an integral salary is possible without ending the contract, but the cesantías and other benefits accrued to that date must be settled first. Social security and payroll levies are then charged on 70% of the integral amount.

Commissions and bonuses call for equal attention. Regular commissions and bonuses tied to results are salary under CST art. 127, so they enter the base for contributions, the prima and cesantías. A genuinely occasional, discretionary bonus is not. Write down which is which when the plan is set up, not when the first payment is due.

Ownership of code, designs and other work your hire produces is covered in our guide to IP for Colombian staff.

Working hours, night work and Sunday pay all changed under the 2025 reform; our explainer on the labour reform in 2026 has the dates.

A contract rarely stands alone. Every employer in Colombia must have a written right-to-disconnect policy (desconexión laboral) with a complaints procedure, under Ley 2191 de 2022. Employers above certain sizes, more than five permanent workers in commerce or more than ten in industry, also need internal work rules (reglamento interno de trabajo), posted in two visible spots and online, and revised for the new disciplinary procedure.

Teleworkers need their own annex covering equipment, modality, weekly hours, custody of equipment, digital security and minimum workstation standards; our guide to remote work in Colombia goes through each item. Foreign hires bring visa and reporting steps of their own.

When we act as the employer through Employer of Record Colombia, the contract is ours to draft and sign, under Colombian law, with the job description, salary and start date you agree with the candidate. We add the clauses on probation, IP, confidentiality and remote work, and we keep the disconnection policy and other documents current. The sequence from accepted offer to signed contract and first payslip is set out in our offer-to-payroll timeline, and our page on employing in Colombia gives the wider picture.