Outdated and incapable of providing adequate labor protection, this is what the current situation of Nicaraguan legislation looks like when it comes to defending the rights of workers in the free zones, says Ana Gómez, a former employee of this maquila industry and former promoter of defense of women’s rights of the Movement of Working and Unemployed Women “María Elena Cuadra” (MEC).
The norm that currently governs the different free zones that operate throughout the country is characterized by the absence of independent unions and a Ministry of Labor (Mitrab), which is not interested in defending the labor rights of thousands of workers, mostly women. Gomez says.
Related news: Free zone workers will receive a slight increase in the minimum wage
“After being unjustifiably fired along with my colleagues, including workers with five or ten years of seniority, we never received a response from anything; ours was a collective dismissal and the State did nothing for us; we were abandoned and unprotected as women,” says Gómez.
The activist assures that the violations that are most committed in free zone companies are dismissals under article 45 of the Labor Code, which is normally used to dispense with the services of any employee, without in many cases having a valid justification .
Referring to the violations, Gómez states that the issue of the health of the workers in a free trade zone “is an issue that reaches dramatic levels, since it becomes a crime to ask for a permit to see a doctor, even though the workers show an appointment or take a certificate from a doctor.”
lousy wages
“And all this without mentioning that the salary of free zone workers is the worst, they are starvation wages, there is no justice with the payment that a free zone worker receives, because we earned the basics, and if we wanted to earn more, there was We had to work overtime or work even on Sundays, and that’s how our health deteriorated,” says Gómez.
“I came out with a cervical hernia from working there day and night. Given the lack of opportunities in the country, we had no other alternative but to leave our backs in the free zones, but we left there with consequences due to working under pressure,” says Gómez, who worked for 18 years in different companies in free zones. .
Like Gómez’s, there are many cases that a team of lawyers has managed to document, but for fear of reprisals from the Daniel Ortega dictatorship, they ask to remain anonymous. They currently advise these former workers in free zones, in their complaints for violations of their labor rights in the face of the forced disappearance of the MEC.
“The complaints range from verbal abuse, unjustified dismissals, to the blatant theft of monthly social security contributions that are deducted from the workers’ payments but are not reported to the Nicaraguan Social Security Institute (INSS),” denounces one of the lawyers who is identified only as Isaac. The specialist is part of a group that handles several cases of lawsuits for violation of labor rights in some free zones, mainly those located in Las Mercedes.
unfair dismissals
“I worked in the clothing packaging and folding area of a Chinese company, in the Las Mercedes free zone, they made jean-style jackets there, I did my job and did what they told me, but they fired me for no reason. They just called me at the office, and they told me that it had been cancelled. For no reason,” says Mercedes del Carmen Castillo Sánchez, 19.
She explains that they did not give her any documents that would say why she was being fired. Mercedes argues that she did not seek legal help because she saw how they canceled two of her friends who entered at the same time as her, and although they sought to make her labor rights prevail, they did not get any response. “So I didn’t want to search or find out more,” she says.
Now she remains a housewife, while she strives to make her husband’s salary enough to cover household expenses, which includes their two daughters, a mission that is only possible thanks to the support of the girls’ grandfather. Mercedes does not rule out looking for work again even if she has to return to a free zone company, because she needs it.
Companies do not inform the INSS
Estela Medina Rojas, 28, a resident of the Grenada neighborhood in Managua, started working in September 2020 at one of those free zone companies, in Las Mercedes, and this was the testimony gathered by the lawyers.
“Well, they told me that many people had resigned for fear of catching Covid. But once I started working, I learned that in addition to the fear of Covid, many were giving up to go to Costa Rica or the United States ”, he adds.
“I entered on September 1 and in October I saw that the others were given their butts, but they did not give me and three others who started working the same day… we asked and they told us that they had not left yet, that we should wait for another month because of the cigarette butt, but in the fortnight they were already deducting my social security fee”. The other workers had told me that most of them were treated at the Baptist Hospital. November arrived, and once again our butts did not come out, but they still told us that there was a delay, that we should continue waiting, ”she says.
She adds that on December 18, at midnight, she had unbearable pain in her leg and abdomen, then her partner asks her about the cigarette butt and which hospital she was affiliated with. “I told her that they hadn’t given it to me yet, but that the other compañeras had to go to the Baptist and that I was going to go right there.”
“I arrived at Bautista and I told them that I was new to the company and that they had not given me a cigarette yet, so they look for me in the system, but they cannot find me, and they tell me that I am not affiliated with them and that they could only attend in private, but that was very expensive, ”he points out. “With great pain, at that time my partner took me to Lenín Fonseca, there they told me it was appendicitis,” he said.
“Then,” he added, “my partner went to tell the free zone what had happened to me to see about the subsidy and there they told him that I had no right to the subsidy because my contract was temporary.” “A lawyer told me that he could take the case to sue the company, I’m still waiting for an answer,” he added.
Verbal and psychological abuse cases abound
The lawyers also report the case of Antonio Suárez, 26, a resident of Barrio 18 de Mayo, in Managua. “Working in free zones is always very complicated. Once you start working or are looking for work in the free zones, you have to know that you will never have time for yourself, for your family, to take steps that you need to do, because there are no permits there, you always work hard, a Once you are inside, it is difficult to obtain a permit for what you need”, he adds.
“Even if you ask for permission, they don’t take you into account, because in order for you to be heard there, you have to have been working for a long time, and depending on the work they do in there, because there are different chores. A person with two or three months of working there does not have a way to say a rank, so that they listen to you about something you need or a concern that one has, ”she says.
“Depending on the work you have, there are positions that are more important than others. So, depending on your position, if they need you a lot, they listen to you, they can give you a permit, but if you have a low occupation, they look at you like that, like anything. Your work is not respected. It’s super complicated,” she recounted.
“During the time that I was working, I saw many anomalies, problems, mistreatment of the workers, one on top of the other, even the supervisors, lawsuits and all that. Verbal and psychological abuse abounds, ”she denounced. “Regarding the mistreatment of workers in the free zone, it is quite strong. If they catch your eye, don’t think that they will scold you in a polite way or with words of wisdom. What they tell you are very strong words, ”he added.
Suarez says that the dismissals are “for anything.” “There is no valid law, there are no unions, there is nothing,” he says. “If they fire you, they don’t mind hiring inexperienced people, because they train them quickly, and they replace the person they fire, so they don’t go around so much about putting up with some worker who demands a right, they fire them and that’s it, they leave without novelty. The worst thing is that there is nowhere to turn, ”he lamented.
