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The Chamber of Industry and Commerce (Cainco) of Santa Cruz denounced discrimination by the Government regarding the salary increase defined for this year. He warned that public companies obtain privileges for the application of the salary increase, to which private companies do not have access.
“The Government has been applying differentiated wage increases. Family businesses have to apply the increases decreed by the Government and cannot fall below this base. It doesn’t matter if they haven’t recovered, it doesn’t matter if they have had profits or not, it doesn’t matter if their sales have fallen,” a statement from the entity refers.
On the other hand, he adds, in public companies “privileges continue to exist.” For example, they mention that they have 30 days to establish whether or not to apply the 3% salary increase to the basic salary that the Government ordered after an agreement with the Central Obrera Boliviana (COB) and that the increase could not be greater than that approved for this year, “respecting the net income and financial availability of each company.”
“That is to say – adds the Cainco note – that they may or may not increase salaries arguing with financial sustainability in their projected cash flow for at least three years. Why doesn’t the same criteria apply to everyone? Why do family companies have to negotiate on the basis of 3 and 4% while public companies can stay below or simply not increase wages?
In their speeches, the COB and the Government say that private businessmen show signs of “solidarity” in terms of salary increases “Why don’t they ask the same solidarity from public companies? It is difficult to understand that those who demand solidarity from others do not apply the same criteria to state companies”, the industrialists ask.
The note adds that the Government forgets that during the pandemic “thousands of families” contributed from their pockets to deliver food to millions of Bolivians and donate medicines, open free recovery centers and contribute to vaccination centers. “That is solidarity. It is proven that we have never needed decrees to show solidarity. The reality is that we are seeing a great injustice, an open discrimination.”
