Colonel Abdiel Solís, general director of the Meritorious Fire Department of the Republic of Panama, addressed this Thursday the issue of the protests carried out by firefighters on Wednesday afternoon to demand payment of promotions for justice.
Solís recognized that the institution brings a drag from the promotions of many years ago and it was a situation that they found when they arrived at the administration. “We have been trying to do the impossible to do the most justice that can be done,” he stressed.
He explained that in order to fully comply with this payment, a budgetary capacity must be available.
“We have calculated this in the budget because this is our first budget year, even though we already have a year and a half in the institution, the year 2022 is our first budget year. We have had the problems of the pandemic, budget cuts that have affected the economy, but we have already made the calculations for 2022 and 2023 and include it. We must comply with this, ”he detailed.
On Wednesday morning, the retired Major and General Secretary of the Firefighters Union of the Republic of Panama, Cruz Gómez, stressed that they are fighting for promotions for justice, which is to take each firefighter to the rank that corresponds to him according to his service time.
“We have firefighters who retired last year in the same promotion, some as Major and others as Corporal Segundo or Corporal Primero, those are inconsistencies within the institution. We have cooks who have 20 years of service and still earn $600 and $700, mechanics who earn a very low salary. At the national level they don’t even have mechanical sections, “he said on Radio Panama.
He specified that a year ago an agreement was reached between the general director of the institution, members of the union and the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF), where a new structure was going to be delivered to the MEF so that it would pay these promotions for justice. , but have received no concrete answers.
