New labor law will have 60 to 90 days of public debate so that a strengthened project reaches the Assembly

The thirteenth and fourth, vacations, profits, reserve funds and affiliation to Social Security are rights that will be maintained for all workers. None of these rights is changed in the draft labor law that the Government will first present to society in work groups and then go to the National Assembly for processing.

The Minister of Labor, Patricio Donoso, ratifies that the Labor Code will remain in force and that the new law will be optional for those who get a job after the approval of this regulation. And in a conversation with this newspaper, he outlines some points that will enter those debates and that seek to make companies lose their fear of hiring and to give opportunities to the 5.7 million people who are unemployed, underemployed or in the informality.

What expectations do they have regarding approval?

The expectation is that through a public debate in which academia, union leaders, social organizations, business leaders, the media will participate, we will incorporate the inputs, the observations made in order to that a much stronger project reaches the Assembly. The best thing is that we all participate in this debate so that the much stronger bill has real and strong chances of being approved. With a good open debate, I do not see any legislative bloc that turns its back on the desperation that so many people have…

How long will these forums take and how will they be conducted?

Between 60 and 90 days is the term that the Government has set to debate this project. We are going to set up work tables with the different sectors and organizations, they are going to participate this quarter giving their opinion, we are going to build -based on the project that the Government has prepared- a project that will go to the Assembly and be approved .

What points are being analyzed?

We are not going to reform the Labor Code, it remains in force for the three out of ten Ecuadorians who have a job. The new bill has all labor rights: thirteenth, fourteenth, vacations, reserve funds provided by the employer, obviously affiliation to Social Security, which is the most important thing. We will have more contributors and we will begin to save the IESS, not with increases in contributions, but with new contributors.

Those employers who wanted to migrate their employees to the new law will have to pay twelve months of compensation, because they are not creating new jobs. For that reason, this penalty in the project, in addition to the other workers’ compensation rights.

This bill is new. I am going to give you an example: on account of what is charged 35% when someone needs to be hired on a temporary basis, the Labor Code establishes the 35% surcharge, it is outrageous, we eliminated in the bill that that has no logic, that does not encourage hiring. What it is about is that the small and medium entrepreneur lose their fear of hiring more people.

To the entrepreneurs, we are increasing from 20 to 48 workers in the crafts, to increase the hiring capacity of the master operators. Artisans are key, they hire no less than half a million Ecuadorians, what we want is for workshops not to have only 20 workers or 19, because if they have 20 they lose their quality as (artisans)… We want them to have 48 or more to create employment.

We are establishing that 40 hours a week will be respected, not necessarily 8 hours a day. There are businesses that require more hours of work on a Friday than on a Monday. A restaurant, for example. Therefore, it can be divided, but it cannot exceed 40 hours per week.

We establish an important treatment for women, the mother when she gives birth will be able to choose her maternity leave:

• If you choose 16 weeks, you will have one hour off of nursing leave (when you return to work).
• If you choose 12 weeks, two hours of nursing leave per day.
• If she chooses 8 weeks of maternity leave, she will have three hours off from breastfeeding per day, which is much more than the current Labor Code has.

I support parents with leave that will no longer be two weeks but up to a month or possibly two months when they have a child. Or adoptive parents too, therefore, the rights are going to be even in those major issues.

And the employment contracts?

We are establishing an indefinite contracting system, another defined between six months and two years on a voluntary basis and after two years it becomes indefinite… In the agricultural field, the absurdity that if the issue of planting is taken up again is not established or crops have to be contracted themselves, no, freedom of contract.

They will have thirteenth, fourteenth, vacations, reserve funds provided by the employer and affiliation to Social Security; one, as a mechanism for the worker to access mortgage and unsecured loans; and, two, so that Social Security is strengthened with the logic of having more contributors, what would not be included is employer retirement.

Employer retirement was established before the IESS existed. Currently only 4% of workers reach 20 years in the same company. It is not eliminated, for those who are currently working under the Labor Code it is maintained. What we do is that this figure is not included in the new project, because if it were, the result would not be seen until twenty years from now and the current youth, more than stability, what they expect is opportunity.

Faced with criticism that will always come, what scenarios does the Government have if the possibility arises that this law does not pass in the Assembly?

Plan A is the only one. It is to pass a bill that facilitates hiring. Any entrepreneur is asked why they don’t hire, why they don’t open branches, why they don’t invest, and everyone’s answer will be ‘because the labor law is too rigid and we are afraid to grow our business.’ I do not see any legislative bloc opposing after a patriotic debate. That is the government’s plan, to get the legislature to improve the project.

They are going to send the investment bill and it will require debate. How to do so that while this law is being processed, the labor discussion advances?

The Investment Law project will go to the Assembly in the next few days as an economic urgency. So, that topic must be aired in 30 days. Therefore, we have the perfect possibility that while the productive project is being debated in the Assembly, we will already start – the president will indicate the moment – the national debate on the labor project not yet in the Assembly, which will be presented between now and 60, 90 days.

Will it also be shipped on an urgent economic basis?

I understand that yes, that decision will be adopted by the President of the Republic, but my personal opinion is that it will be an economic urgency because it is urgent to attend to the economy of the people, the economy of the family, because there are 5.7 million who they have serious difficulties in resolving their economic drama. (I)