Alicia Gutiérrez, secretary of conflicts of the National Union of workers, vendors of pools, bingo, games of chance and the like of Paraguay (Sitranquiba), reported that, after a journalistic complaint from our media, the company retaliated and dismissed the worker who He made the statements to three of his relatives (his daughter and two more brothers). At the request of the workers themselves, we omit the names of those affected.
The note dealt with the obligation for workers to acquire a new game of “scratch cards” with cash payments. It was an imposition of the company since the profits are only 14% for the workers.
“What they are looking for is to untie the colleagues who are in the union. Those who protest against them. They want to scare the workers. When one declares something, or does something against it, claiming their own rights, they are disassociated. We have no support from anywhere. That is the saddest thing, we are street workers, without protection”, he expressed.
The pool broker wants people to be restored to their jobs. Otherwise, they will file a complaint with the Ministry of Labor and call a demonstration in front of TDP.
“They live from day to day. The daughter works to pay for her college expenses. The termination was after publication. A total of seven people have already been dismissed since 2010, ”she said.
PRECARIOUSNESS
The firm that operates the pool is Technologies Development of Paraguay (TDP). It belongs to Diego Wasmosy, son of former President Juan Carlos Wasmosy.
The complaints against the company were accentuated at the end of 2020, when journalistic publications revealed that the company was failing to pay the fees that should have been destined for the ex-combatants of the Chaco War.
This is the breach of article 32 of Law 431/73 “On pensions in favor of Chaco veterans.” And article 19 of Law 1016/97 “On the regime for the exploitation of Games of Chance”.
Despite these complaints, and in the same month of September, the National Games of Chance Commission (Conajzar), again awarded TDP for the exploitation of the pool game for the next five years (2025) with the endorsement of Mario Abdo Benitez, President of the Republic.
To this is added the very poor working conditions that the quinieleros must deal with. For example, since the beginning of the pandemic (March 2020), by unilateral decision, TDP reduced the profit percentage from 25% to 20%. With this, the more than 6,000 pool runners in the country receive around G. 300,000 less per day.
Also, each of the workers who decide to demonstrate, begin to have problems with their machines. This makes it impossible for them to work for 12 or 24 hours and with it the sales of that time are lost.
With the last case, it is demonstrated that the reprisals were accentuated and from the blocking of the machines, it was passed to the direct dismissal of the workers.
