The Constitutional Court orders that Cervecería Nacional consign the total payment of profits to more than 2,600 former workers, within a maximum period of 90 days.
Constitutional Court orders payment of utilities to former employees of Cervecería
The case of the former employees against the company Cervecería Nacional started at least in 2011.
In that year, the Court of Justice of Guayas ordered the payment of USD 91 million , for the concept of profits to former workers, between the period of 1990 and 2005.
But, the company’s lawyers filed a protection action against the sentence in 2014.
Now, according to a self-verification opinion from the Constitutional Court of June 8, 2023, the legal complaint is about to come to an end.
In a self-verification document, the Court orders the company to pay the global amount of profits, considered by the Ministry of Labor.
The consignment of the profits to the workers will be made within a maximum period of 90 days , after the publication of the judgment.
It is estimated that 2,608 former employees would benefit from the measure, including the heirs of 200 collaborators who died during the legal process.
Payment will not be immediate
The opinion was approved by the Plenary of the Court, with the eight votes in favor of the judges , in a session on June 7.
According to the lawyer for the former workers’ front, Washington Andrade, the Court has ordered a new schedule of payments to the company, and which “is final and of immediate compliance.”
Andrade explained that first a period of 60 days is granted to the Ministry of Labor , so that it appoints an expert and establishes the amount to be paid.
Then, once the total amount is known, Cervecería Nacional has 30 more days to deposit the money in the Ministry’s bank account.
“If Cervecería does not do so, a coercive trial can be initiated for non-compliance with the decisions,” Andrade added.
Finally, the Court also ordered that a Contentious Administrative Court in Guayaquil know the judgment and the payment schedule.
And it will be this Court that delivers the money to each of the former workers.
This weekend, the former employees will hold an Assembly to hear the decision.
Although the process for payment of obligations is still long, Andrade acknowledged, the difference is that now the Ministry of Labor “has no excuse to enforce the company.”
