The business sector opposes the bill that intends to stimulate the economy and local tourism, through the establishment of mandatory rest days and salary surcharges on the days of national events.

This is Bill 487, which is called “Adopting a temporary regime of economic, cultural and national tourism stimulus, through the establishment of mandatory rest days and salary surcharges on national event days”, which was presented to the Panamanian Assembly on September 28, 2020.

According to the initiative, a temporary Special Regime is established, for the Economic, Cultural and National Tourism Stimulus, which consists in the creation of the national event day.

“They will be national event days, the third Friday of the months of June, July, August, September and October of each year, in order to stimulate the economy, culture and national tourism. The days of national event will have specific denominations according to plans and programs that respond to public policies of the Tourism Authority of Panama and the Ministry of Culture” states one of the articles of the text.

According to Article 5 “... the work on the national event day for the workers of the companies described in Article 2 of this law, shall be paid with a surcharge of fifty (50%) and, as additional compensation, said rest shall be transferred to the Tuesday and Wednesday immediately following“. See full text.

On February 17, 2021, the National Council of Private Enterprise (Conep) issued a statement in which it expressed its opposition to this proposal. In the document, the trade union explains that this is an unfavorable measure, since the salary surcharges would affect the productive sector, which today is in an unfavorable situation due to the crisis.

The ideal would be to receive initiatives that allow the reactivation of jobs and the generation of new jobs, rather than new charges to operating costs and expenses.

Conep proposes the temporary reestablishment of the law of bridge days (a holiday in the middle of the work week, which is moved to the following Friday or Monday).

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