Salary increase raises the salaries of COB leaders above Bs 15,000

The increase in the basic salary decided by the Government of Luis Arce increases the allowance of the leadership of the Central Obrera Boliviana (COB) above 15,000 bolivianos. Among the beneficiaries is the executive secretary, Juan Carlos Huarachi, Huanuni mining worker declared in commission for six yearsand has a salary of Bs 15,450.

The leader showed his salary slip of Bs 15,000 and taking into account this year’s increase of 3% to the base, his salary will be Bs 15,450 starting May 1.

Union leaders from other sectors also benefit, such as the representatives of oil workers whose salaries are above Bs 20,000, according to the revelation of the leader Rolando Borda who died in 2023.

President Luis Arce, together with the leaders of the COB, announced on Tuesday the increase in the national minimum wage will be 5.8% and 3% in the basic wage. This is equivalent to the minimum wage being Bs 2,500.

Arce has not yet approved the increase decree and is expected to do so on May Day. In Decree 4928 of 2023, the Government specified that this benefit reached four specific labor sectors: Teaching, health, Bolivian Police and Armed Forces. It did not establish an increase for parliamentarians, ministers, vice ministers or other high executive authorities, nor did it establish an increase in the income of former presidents.

Experts and legislators observe that the Government, when determining salary increases, ““discriminates” against 80% of workers who do not have formal contracts.

“This treatment that the Government makes does not consider the businessman private who is the one who is going to pay from his contributions, from his assets. Instead, the Government is going to give the salary increase to the public sector, which is only 20% of the population that formally works. 80% live in the informal economy, which is a sector that has no bonus, no vacations, no insurance, no compensation and no salary increase. “It is totally discriminatory,” said deputy José Luis Porcel (CC), who is part of the Planning and Economic Policy Commission.

The other factor that the economist Porcel cites, to say that it is discriminatory, is that businessmen must provide provisions accounting every year 16 salaries for each of its workers.

“There are 12 salaries for each month of the year, plus one of the bonus, totaling 13. You also have to provide the remaining 8.5% to pay compensation, the seniority bonus and the contribution made for social security. All of this turns into ensuring about 16 salaries a year and this affects companies,” he explained.

Just like Porcel, the MAS legislators from the evista bloc also reject the increase. “Our President (Luis Arce) seems that he has made a bad decision to increase 5% to 3%, therefore we hope that this can be corrected”Deputy Andrés Flores told reporters.

“We have to look out not only for salaried workers, but we also have to look out for people who do not live on salaries, therefore, we have to talk about everyone,” added the legislator.

Deputy Omar Rueda (We Believe) described it as “irresponsible” the salary increase determined by Arce and Huarachi because it does not benefit all workers

“The Government goes and attacks the only sector that tries to save the formal economy of this country, which are the businessmen.” and they do not coordinate with them. The increase should have been agreed upon,” said Rueda.

But the vision of the Minister of Economy, Marcelo Montenegro, is different. He rejected that the increase in salaries is something political and defended the decision by ensuring that for this increase a technical analysis was carried out under the premise of achieving a replacement in purchasing power and boosting demand in the country’s internal market.

“It is not a political decision because this increase has been based on analysis of information and economic variables such as last year’s inflation rate, the replacement of purchasing power. If it were a political measure we would have followed the request made by the COB for an increase of 7% to the basic salary and 8% to the minimum wage”Montenegro added.

According to the head of Economy, the increase benefits the entire productive sector of Bolivia since workers will spend that money in the domestic market, strengthening purchasing power and generating more economic movement.

In 2021 the minimum wage reached Bs 2,164; In 2022 it reached Bs 2,250; For 2023 it rose to Bs 2,362, while with the recent increase it will be Bs 2,500.

JuCarlos Huarachi was executive secretary of the Departmental Workers’ Central (COD) of Oruro. After that period, since 2018 he has been in the COB continuously.

In 2018, the government of Jeanine Añez endorsed its extension that lasted until 2022. In February of that year, when Luis Arce was already there, Huarachi, who had already aligned himself with the Government, managed to extend his mandate for two more years until 2024.

In January of this year, in an enlargement observed by the low participation of leaders affiliated with the COB, Huarachi achieved the support of some sectors that provided their “moral and material backing and support.” The gesture affected the entire Cobista executive committee, without giving a date for the end of its leadership.

Over the course of his years as leader of the COB, Huarachi has been adjusting his political discourse in accordance with the government in power. First, it was in the last administration of Evo Morales that he gave his support, although in the 2019 crisis, he asked him to resign from the Presidency. In 2020, when Jeanine Añez assumed the Presidency, she also approached his government and obtained his union endorsement. That same year, in January 2020, Huarachi, in an expanded COB rejected Evo Morales’ decision to nominate Luis Arce as a candidate.