In a joint sector statement, the Chamber of Industry, Commerce, Services and Tourism of Santa Cruz (Cainco), the Chamber of Gastronomic Entrepreneurs (Cadeg), the Chamber of Construction of Santa Cruz (Cadecocruz) and the Federation of Private Entrepreneurs of Santa Cruz (Fepsc) refuted labor policies and proposed a shift in salary policies.
The request appears at a time when the Government and the Bolivian Workers’ Central (COB) debate and negotiate in technical tables the salary increase for the current administration. It should be remembered that in March the executive secretary of the union organization of workers, Juan Carlos Huarachi, said that in the sector specifications proposed an increase of 7% to the national basic wage and 10% to the national minimum wage. In April 2021, the Government and the COB agreed to a 2% increase in the national minimum wage and there was no increase in the basic wage. Currently, the national minimum wage reaches Bs 2,164.
The statement, the sectors censor the way of defining salary increases and labor benefits without knowing or asking about the conditions in which the person who pays the bill is. “They advertise benefits without considering the anguish they cause to those who must pay the bill. Perhaps they consider the adversities faced by business families to pay for the benefits announced on May 1. The Government meets with a privileged group of leaders to agree on benefits that thousands and thousands of entrepreneurs have to pay”, highlighted the president of Cainco, Fernando Hurtado, when giving an account of some of the points of the sector statement.
He highlighted that the big question is whether those who take responsibility for making decisions that affect the economy know the reality, the conditions and the adversities they face every morning, every day the bakers, the carpenters, the food producers, all those who created employment and who have to worry about paying their fortnightly wages and salaries at the end of the month. “Who is responsible for thousands of entrepreneurs and producers not being able to sleep because of the concern that their sales are not enough to pay their salaries?” said Hurtado.
In the opinion of the business sectors, the big question is whether those who they put the percentages of increase and write endless specifications they think about the around 100,000 young people who finish their training every yearseek work and aspire to quality employment.
“A job that creates access to social security, to the possibility of saving for retirement in the AFPs, to training in a position that allows one to have a career. The vast majority of applicants who hope to find a quality job every year want to work in a private company. What do the COB and the Government say to those who see their dreams truncated because salary policies hinder the creation of quality employment instead of promoting it?”, infer the sectors.
The sector proposes four axes to turn wage policies around. Change the roles and the way of dialogue and negotiation, that the negotiations must be done by sector and between the directly related parties, that the negotiations in each sector must define valid references and end discrimination against the private sector.