With no significant agreements after a month of debates for the economic reopening of the country, yesterday it met in a virtual plenary session at the request of the workers’ unions that last Wednesday withdrew from the three commissions created because they believe the government is legislating on the issues under discussion regardless of the expressed opinions.

Abelardo Herrera, representative of the Unified Confederation of Workers, told newspaper La Estrella de Panamá that one of the points of disagreement at the meeting was the suspension of employment contracts and their gradual reactivation, taking into account that companies will hire fewer employees due to health requirements.

Regarding the online plenary, the Ministry of Labor and Labor Development (Mitradel) issued a note that leaves out internal discrepancies, but highlighted the statement by the agency’s deputy minister, Roger Tejada, that a thousand workers returned to work, a figure that is only 0.004 percent of the currently unemployed.

‘We are carrying out the necessary inspections to verify compliance with health and safety measures due to the gradual reactivation of economic activities in accordance with the recommendations of the Health Ministry, in order to guarantee the lives of workers and their families,’ he said.

In contrast, a statement from the eight participating trade union centers denounced that ‘the questions that the workers ask are ignored, however, in the case of the business sector they are immediately rectified and modified’ and gave as an example the relaxation of health requirements.

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