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The North American private security and surveillance multinational, Brinks, suffered a setback in court after being ordered to reinstate 4 cash in transit escort workers in Medellin: Silgado Bustamante ​​Pérez, John Sergio Montoya Ospina, Faber Arbey Alvarez Mejía, and José Alexander Jaimes Escalante, due to violation of their constitutional rights including freedom of association.

Their abusive dismissal was denounced by the president of SINTRABRINKS to the Labour Inspector under the Ministry of Labour and the Ombudsman; and subsequently filed with the Municipal Civil Court 27 of Medellin, that responded positively to the request for protection of fundamental rights, and ordered the reinstatement and compensation of the workers to restore employment conditions as before their dismissal.

Sadly, the company’s behaviour has repeated itself over the years. In a short period of time, the company has attacked the leadership of the union alleging a variety of different reasons. Fortunately, in this case there is a history of favourable rulings in Bogota, when 5 co-workers were dismissed in similar circumstances, and then were constitutionally ordered to be reinstated under Sentence T 340 of 2013.   They were all cash-in-transit workers and the company had records of good work performance, however on the 19th July, 2013, one day before requesting to join the union, the workers were informed that their employment contracts would be cancelled, alleging a workforce reduction due to the company’s economic situation that forced it to adjust “operating resources” because of a reduction in business.

One reason the court ruled in favour of the workers was that employer's conduct did not meet constitutional standards.  The court said Brinks' behaviour was : " ... aimed at deterring potential union members, penalizing or discriminating them because they unionise, putting pressure on them to leave the union, dismantling or weakening trade unions, regardless of class, category or number of members, or massively excluding union members from their positions or employment opportunities, whether the reprehensible conduct is from public or private companies". Therefore, since the company's justification was insufficient, then its actions were considered to be in violation of the law.

Brinks previously attempted to destroy the union by dismissing 12 union leaders, including the National President and the Chairman of the Bogota District.