Remote work and telework in Colombia: what changes in payroll and social security

Remote work and telework in Colombia: what changes in payroll and social security

The employment contract stays in force, the salary does not go down and contributions are calculated on the same base. There is no special payroll or social security regime for someone who works from home. What does change is everything else: who pays for the internet and the equipment, how working time is controlled, who assesses the risk of a workstation that happens to be the dining table, and what happens the day the person wants to go back to the office.

The problem is almost never in the calculation: it is in the name. Telework, work from home and remote work are different figures, each with its own rules, and a company that treats them as synonyms ends up with a verbal agreement, no risk assessment and no clause for returning. This is the full route: how to tell them apart, what the agreement must say, what moves in payroll and how to set up the move of a COP 3,000,000 salary to three days a week.

Three figures that look alike and are not

All three exist in Colombian law, each has its own rules and none works as a synonym for the others. The difference is not vocabulary: it decides the company's obligations on equipment, on risk assessment and on how to reverse the arrangement.

If the agreement carries one name and the operation does another thing, the document does not fit and the obligations that are triggered are different. Before choosing the name, confirm which rules fit and what they demand in equipment, connectivity and return.

What does not change when the desk moves home

The contract stays in force: it is not terminated, suspended or replaced by a new one. What changes is where the work is performed, not the relationship. The worker keeps seniority, benefits, salary, position and collective rights.

Severance, severance interest, service bonus and vacation are therefore calculated exactly as before, on the same salary. Subordination does not change either: the person still takes instructions and still follows company rules. The only thing that moved is the address they connect from.

Hence a hard rule: any clause that cuts salary, removes benefits or turns the employee into a contractor because they work from home is not a valid agreement. The figure organises work; it does not make it cheaper.

Social security and payroll contributions: the base stays put

The duty to enrol workers and pay social security and payroll contributions stays the same. The base is still the contribution base income, built from salary and from payments that are salary in nature. Where the work is done does not enter that calculation.

The general statutory rates apply unchanged: health 12.5%, pension 16%, payroll contributions 9% for an employer with no exemptions — SENA 2%, ICBF 3%, family compensation fund 4% — and workplace accident insurance (ARL) according to the risk class. None of them changes because the person works three days from home. What can move the base is the nature of the connectivity allowance, and that is decided in the agreement, not in the accounting.

The difference between the last two rows is where most money moves and where almost nobody documents anything. An allowance declared non-salary does not touch the base or the benefits; the same payment without that precision, or folded into the salary, raises the base and multiplies the cost.

The written agreement: what it must say

The move requires a written, voluntary agreement. Voluntary means the person can say no without that affecting their continuity. Written means signed by both parties, dated and filed in the personnel record. An email saying “agreed” proves a conversation, not conditions.

• Which figure applies and under which rules.
• The authorised locations, with address.
• Working time, schedule and how availability is recorded.
• Which tools the company provides and under what handover record.
• What is compensated and how: fixed allowance, reimbursement or direct provision.
• The nature of the connectivity allowance: salary or non-salary, with the reason.
• Health and safety duties: self-assessment, reporting of conditions and breaks.
• Use of equipment, data processing and confidentiality.
• Reversibility: notice, deadlines and who decides.
• Term and signatures.

If the agreement does not mention equipment or reversibility, the company is exposed on the two points that cause most disputes: the cost of working and the possibility of coming back.

Reversibility: the right to come back and how to agree on it

Reversibility is what allows the arrangement to be undone without breaking the contract. It must be in writing, with a reasonable notice period for both sides, and with a clear consequence: when telework ends the person returns to their position at the office, with the same salary and the same role.

Three details are usually left open. The deadline, because without one anybody can claim the notice was too short. The physical position, because if the office was reorganised there has to be a relocation plan, not a refusal. And retaliation, because using the return as punishment turns an organisational right into a labour dispute. It is also worth fixing what happens with the equipment handed over and when it comes back.

Tools and connectivity: who pays for the internet

The employer must provide or compensate tools and connectivity, according to the figure and to what was agreed. That duty separates orderly telework from a silent transfer of costs: if the company does not hand over the computer and does not recognise the internet, the employee is subsidising the operation.

Three models work: the company provides the full equipment and pays for the service; the company provides the equipment and pays a fixed connectivity allowance; or the employee uses personal equipment and receives a larger compensation. All three are valid if they are written down. What does not work is the silent arrangement, where each side puts in what it has and nobody knows what happened with maintenance.

Every piece of equipment handed over needs a record with serial number, condition and responsible person, plus rules on maintenance and insurance. When the relationship ends, the return must be documented.

Working time, control and the right to disconnect

Working time still exists. Working from home does not turn anyone into a permanent worker: limits on hours, rest periods and overtime pay apply exactly as at the office, and extra work requires prior authorisation. If the person answers chats at ten at night every day, that is not commitment: it is unrecognised working time.

Control must be reasonable and non-invasive. Recording the start and end of the shift, asking for progress reports or scheduling follow-ups is legitimate. Software that captures the screen continuously, turning on the camera without justification or tracking the phone outside working hours is not, and it also breaks the trust that sustains the arrangement.

The right to disconnect closes the circle: outside working hours the person is not obliged to answer and cannot be disciplined for it. The useful rule goes into the agreement: which channel is used, in which window and with what response margin.

Occupational health and safety: assessing the home workstation

The occupational health and safety management system (SG-SST in Spanish) includes a risk assessment of the workstation that now exists at home. It is not a formality: the dining table, the chair without lumbar support, the overloaded power strip and the shift without breaks produce injuries and absences that the company ends up paying for.

The minimum assessment covers four fronts: ergonomics — screen, lumbar support, wrists —, electrical risk — loads, cables, grounding —, locational and order risk — space, lighting, ventilation — and psychosocial risk — isolation, mental load, permanent availability, the mixing of home and work. The hazard identification matrix must include that workstation and be updated when the person moves house.

The instrument can be a self-assessment checklist reviewed by the health and safety officer, plus a visit when the risk justifies it. The assessment is proportional: the workstation is reviewed, not the home.

What the ARL covers and what it does not

The workplace accident insurer (ARL) covers accidents that happen at the authorised place of work, just as it would cover an accident at the office. That is the direct consequence of having assessed and authorised the home workstation: the place where the person works sits inside the protected perimeter.

Two operational duties follow: report the accident through the established channel and within the deadlines, and keep the address of the workplace up to date in the enrolment records, because a stale address complicates care and the classification of the event.

The grey area appears when the person works from a place other than the authorised one: there coverage is not automatic and the case is analysed on its specific circumstances. If someone is going to work from another address, they should report it and it should be recorded before, not after the accident.

What these figures cannot be used for

None of the three can be used to avoid contributions. Turning an employee into a service contractor, leaving them without enrolment or paying by transfer with no payroll is not telework: it is employment without a contract, made worse by the fact that subordination still exists and can be proven with emails, schedules and orders.

Nor can the figures be used to subordinate informally — demanding full availability without recognising working time —, to cut salary, to impose the agreement as a condition for keeping the job, or to hide a real employment relationship behind a service contract with someone who takes instructions every day.

The usual consequences are assessments for unpaid contributions, interest and penalties, and labour claims with compensation. The saving that was sought is lost several times over in the process. If the relationship behaves like employment, it is documented as employment, wherever the person happens to sit.

Example: a COP 3,000,000 salary moving to telework three days a week

A company agrees with a purchasing analyst, on a salary of COP 3,000,000, to move to telework three days a week and two at the office. The agreement includes a connectivity allowance of COP 150,000 a month, agreed as non-salary. Payroll does not change at all: the contribution base income stays at COP 3,000,000.

The calculation, step by step: 12.5% of COP 3,000,000 is COP 375,000, of which the company pays 8.5% (COP 255,000) and the worker 4% (COP 120,000). Pension at 16% is COP 480,000: 12% from the company (COP 360,000) and 4% from the worker (COP 120,000). Payroll contributions at 9% are COP 270,000: SENA 2% (COP 60,000), ICBF 3% (COP 90,000) and family fund 4% (COP 120,000). The ARL is calculated on the same base and the same risk class.

The worker's statutory deductions total COP 240,000, so net pay before withholding goes from COP 2,760,000 to COP 2,910,000 with the allowance. The company neither saves nor spends more on contributions: it still pays COP 885,000 a month plus ARL.

Now the contrast. If that same allowance had been agreed as salary, or paid inside the salary without saying so, the contribution base would rise to COP 3,150,000. Health would go to COP 393,750, pension to COP 504,000 and payroll contributions to COP 283,500: COP 56,250 more a month in contributions, of which the company pays COP 44,250 and the worker COP 12,000. Over a year that is COP 531,000 of extra cost for the company and COP 144,000 less net pay. The difference is not in telework: it is in how the allowance was signed.

The steps, in order: define the figure and the number of days; sign the agreement with the equipment annex; fix the allowance and its nature; update the risk assessment and the workplace address; and put the reversibility deadline in writing. Without the third step, the example becomes the expensive scenario.

The same case with a verbal agreement and no risk assessment

The other version is what small companies do. The boss says in a meeting that “for now, work from home”, nothing is signed, no equipment is handed over, no internet is recognised and nobody assesses the workstation. Payroll also stays the same, but everything else is left in the air.

Under that arrangement the company cannot prove voluntariness or conditions, the person does not know whether they can return or with how much notice, the internet and the electricity come out of their pocket, and if they are injured working at their own table there is no prior assessment to support the report. The difference between the two scenarios is not goodwill: it is documents.

Common mistakes and how they show up in payroll

An honest close before signing

This is not legal or employment advice, and each case has its nuances: the activity, the size of the company, the type of contract and the city change the analysis. Before signing, a labour lawyer should review the agreement and the accountant should confirm how the allowance will be recorded. If the company has no risk assessment for the home workstation and no way to sustain reversibility, it is not ready yet, even if the team is already working from home.

The essentials can be stated without nuance: the contract does not change, the salary does not change, contributions are paid on the same base and benefits are preserved. Everything else — tools, working time, disconnection, risks, return — is negotiated and written down. If you need the connectivity allowance and the equipment to sit as separate items, without dirtying the contribution base and still tying into the accounting, Kardex Tauro covers that part; the underlying decision about the figure and the agreement remains a matter for people.

Keep reading

• Occupational health and safety management in Colombia: what the law requires from a small business
• Registering employees with EPS, pension, ARL and compensation funds: the employer's duties