The Minister of Labor, Pablo Mieres, held a press conference this Sunday on the occasion of Workers’ Day in which he took the opportunity to review measurements applied by the government, recalling the international context delimited by the covid-19 pandemic and the war between Russia and Ukraine.
“It is the first time, since this government began its administration, that we commemorate this day without the health emergency”, Mieres began by saying, and also highlighted that the PIT-CNT “has been able to commemorate this day and transmit its message in normal conditions with the public call with which it used to do so”.
“The second half of last year registered a marked process of job recovery which allowed us to return to a situation similar to or, in some cases, better than the one that existed in the times prior to the pandemic,” said the minister.
“The employment rate recorded at the beginning of this year indicates that practically recovery of jobs lost during 2020 has been achieved”, he added.
In addition, the Ministry of Labor (MTSS) estimated that in the course of this year they will create 40 thousand new jobs. This “will recover a good part of the 50,000 jobs that had been lost in the previous government period (of Tabaré Vázquez), between 2017 and 2019,” he explained.
“The unemployment rate has stood, since the end of last year and during the first quarter of this year, at an average of 7.5%,” said the minister, adding that the figure is “the lowest since 2017.” “The fall in unemployment is today in better figures than in the years before the pandemic”he remarked.
At the conference, Mieres stressed the importance of unemployment insurance total and partial as an instrument to alleviate the situation in the workplace during the months of the coronavirus pandemic.
“In these two years of government the number of informal workers has been reduced”, Mieres said and explained that while “in 2019 there was 25% informality, currently, this number has dropped to 22%”.
“Employment and unemployment activity rates in Uruguay recovered faster than in the region and than in the developed world”assured Mieres, although he admitted that the government “he is happy, but not satisfied”.
access to work
“We have to work on the reductions in inequities in access to work, such as age, education, geographic location, socioeconomic status, and disability,” he said. Along these lines, she emphasized the employment promotion law for vulnerable sectors, approved last year, which focuses on hiring young people, women, people over 45 and people with disabilities.
“We work energetically so that this instrument is used for vulnerable workers to access work,” he added.
Context
The minister emphasized the repercussions that the pandemic had on world GDP. In this sense he said: “The situation we are experiencing, far from being specific to Uruguay, is a situation that has affected the entire world” both at work and in poverty rates. And he stressed: “You have to place things in their global context with the pandemic and the war unleashed in Europe.”
Regarding the salary, the leader of the Independent Party explained: “We assumed the commitment that, when the economy resumes its growth, which is happening, the purchasing power in the course of this period of government. This is why, in the case of private workers, “for the ninth round of Salary Councils, the inclusion of a component that guarantees a part of the lost”.
“The inflationary process – product of the Russian invasion of Ukraine – is unprecedented and affects all the economies of the planet”, with a focus on energy and food prices, Mieres also said. “We are not an island and we also suffer from the price increase,” he added.
On this, the minister stressed the measures taken by the government on “increasing the income of public workers and retirees and pensioners, as well as the promotion of readjustment for inflation for workers in private activity.”
“We dedicate our attention and effort to the recovery of purchasing power,” said the minister, adding that starting in July, work will be done on the most affected sectors: tourism, culture and sportin order to “get back on the road to job recovery.”
Minimum wage increase
Asked about the National Minimum Wage, the minister said that it “increased above inflation” since the current administration began.
In addition, he admitted that he received the proposals that the PIT-CNT sent him in this regard, but explained that, although “everyone would like it to be higher, what we can give is what we have given”.
