The goal of raising 7% adequate employment divides unions

Ecuadornews:

The FUT does not trust that the economic program will increase labor rates. The CUT, on the other hand, maintains that the new modalities of contracting will contribute to production. 

One of the Government’s biggest commitments to the economic program is to increase employment by seven points. Union leaders have divided criteria on the feasibility of reaching that goal until 2021. As of December 2017, the Economically Active Population (EAP) is 8’086,048 people, of which 3’417,483 have adequate or full employment, 1,602,909 are underemployed and 373,871 are unemployed, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC).

The appropriate employment rate covers 42.3%, if the target is met, it will rise to 49.3%. Based on the current PEA, the increase in this category would be equivalent to 568,938 additional workers entering production. In the coming days it is expected to enter into force the new contracting modalities for seven productive branches, which have been promoted since last year.

Newspaper el Telegrafo dialogued with José Villavicencio, president of the Workers Unity Front (FUT) and Richard Gómez, president in charge of the Single Central Workers (CUT), who agreed that the reforms to the labor sector will be deepened in the new Labor Code. Villavicencio acknowledged that the measures are not a scam.

However, he doubts that the Government achieves its goal, since it considers that “the most elementary problems are not solved” but that large economic groups are favored. He denounced that the FUT does not know the content of the new forms of hiring and fears that they give way to a labor “flexibilization” damaging the stable workers. “It happened with outsourcing, they said it was for specific areas and then generalized; Contracts and laws do not generate employment, we need a labor policy,” he said, criticizing that the program does not mention the debts of the State with Social Security.

From another point of view, Richard Gómez does believe that it is possible to increase adequate employment at the proposed level, since he assured that the proposed contracts are compatible with the activities of the areas to which they are directed (agriculture, tourism, fishing and others). That, explained Gómez, will allow regularizing the conditions of workers who currently do not have a fixed contract and others who are in underemployment. “These new contracts cannot be applied to replace workers with permanent contracts but only new employees.” Another element of coincidence between the FUT and the CUT is that there is still division and lack of fluency with the employers. (I)

Source: https://www.eltelegrafo.com.ec/noticias/economia/4/division-sindicatos-nuevas-modalidades-empleo