Deadline for the payment of Unemployment Aid in 2023

Settlement and payment of Unemployment Aid

Article 249 of the Substantive Labor Code (CST) establishes the right of workers to receive one month's salary for each year of service as Unemployment Aid, which must be paid by the employer.

Meanwhile, Article 99 of Law 50 of 1990 establishes that such social benefit must be paid as of December 31 of each year and deposited to the Unemployment Aid Fund before February 15 of each year, that is to say, until February 14.

Additionally, Unemployment Aid must be settled when:

1. The employment contract ends, together with the other social benefits, vacations and other labor credits.
2. The change from ordinary salary to integral salary is made, since the integral salary already includes the value of the Unemployment Aid within the 30% that corresponds to the benefit factor.
3. There is employer substitution, as long as the employer so agrees with its workers, without this being understood as a termination of the employment contract.

For its liquidation, the provisions of Article 253 of the CST must be taken into account, which states the following:

• Fixed salary: For these cases, the last monthly salary earned by the worker will be taken as the basis, provided that it has not had any variation in the last 3 months. Otherwise, the average of what was earned in the last year of services will be taken.

• Variable salary: The average of the salary earned in the last year of services will be taken.

It should be clarified that when the regulation refers to the "last year of services" it means the period of 12 months prior to the liquidation of the Unemployment Aid, and not the time that has elapsed from January 1 of the current year until the date of liquidation.

Penalty for non-payment or late payment

Failure to pay the annual Unemployment Aid before February 15, 2023 will result in a penalty for the employer equivalent to one (1) day's salary for each day of delay until the date of effective payment thereof, in accordance with the provisions of numeral 3 of Article 99 of Law 50 of 1990. In the event that upon termination of the contract the employer has not paid such Unemployment Aid, at that moment the penalty of Law 50 of 1990 will cease to be incurred and the penalty of Article 65 of the CST will begin to apply.  

On the other hand, if the employer pays the Unemployment Aid directly to the employee and does not consign them to the Fund, without any of the causes for partial withdrawal of the Unemployment Aid, the penalty established in Article 254 of the CST will apply, which stipulates that the employer will lose the amounts paid, and the employee will be able to demand again the payment of his Unemployment Aid.