Christian Sánchez: “There is an insistence on reducing (labor) rights and the Government agrees with that”

In the latest administrations of the Ministry of Labor, no substantial change has been perceived in labor policies, and in a scenario of economic stagnation, decisions are urgently needed to reverse this panorama. Christian Sánchez questions the current model and demands that the Government of Dina Boluarte concrete actions to get out of the mire.

-The pandemic has passed and the indicators reflect that adequate employment is not recovering to that level. What limits us?

-The problems that the pandemic has amplified continue to drag on and worsen. Since the labor reform of the nineties, it has been confirmed in official figures that there is a deficit in the generation of decent work. These economic policies of the nineties did not create more decent jobs in relation to rights and have been adopting flexibility.

-Some examples?

-The labor reform introduced nine contractual types of fixed-term work, added to a precarious modality and also another part-time one, with fewer rights and no stability. Social security and health problems are added, as they are deficient due to the lack of a universal protection system to date and the absence of a reform of the pension system. The Executive’s (proposal) has many deficiencies and is not going to solve the problems, since the public competes at a disadvantage against the private system (AFP), when it was possible to transition to a complementary system of articulated protection floors.

-What other shortcomings do we have?

-Anti-union acts predominate and we have a union membership rate of barely 5% in the private sector. The new labor law has not been accompanied by a sufficient budget. In labor justice there is no system of experts. We have a rate of five percentage points of salary work informal, despite the fact that there are regimes with fewer rights. The problem is that there is a discourse with an economic bias. Economic reasons will be important in the labor market debate, but they are not the only reasons. There are also the political and legal ones.

-Everything would respond to the lack of will of the Executive and Legislative…

-Several voices have come out to talk about a reform, but one accentuates the problems caused by the labor market of the reform of the nineties. They want more flexibility, and what do they understand by flexibility?, reduction of labor costs, and by less labor costs?, fewer rights (…) There is no intention of arguing, they insist on reducing rights and I believe that the Government agrees with that posture. It would be good to hear what the Minister of Labor thinks.. I think that the PCM has no idea to deal with this problem.

-Where should the new labor reform aim?

-The differentiated regimes are based on objective reasons when the nature of the activity requires it. Example: agricultural work, where there is seasonal or temporary agricultural activity, a differentiated treatment must be introduced. But in the rest of the sectors, seeking differences in the legal treatment of microenterprises, establishing fewer rights, has not allowed formalization. The root of the microenterprise problem, which is little or no productivity, is not attacked. There must be less harmful policies regarding rights and give more access to financing, links with more modern sectors of the economy and access to new technologies and continuous training. There is a legal and valuation problem that is neither perceived nor debated.

-Do you think that the business sector limits policies that improve the labor relationship considering what happened with outsourcing?

-I wouldn’t generalize. I do not believe that all employers are thinking about weakening freedom of association, just as I do not believe that all workers see the businessmen as potential enemies. Not everything is conflict, there is also ample space for collaboration at work, for common generation, with common objectives of wealth for all. An example of harmonious and lasting relations with high productivity and better salaries and benefits is civil construction: the federation and Capeco are collective subjects that respect each other. Why not replicate it in other areas such as agribusiness, mining or fishing?

-The increase in the minimum wage promised by the president will not materialize.

-They simply don’t want to do it. When things are good, you have to wait. When things are bad, you have to wait. The Constitution says that minimum wages are set tripartitely between the State, workers and employers. There should be a predictable and objective mechanism. The formula of its two components has already been agreed upon, but the supreme decree is missing. There is always an argument to postpone it. They want to comply with the mandates of the Constitution in the economic model, but not when it comes to workers’ rights.