After months of constant confrontations over the fiscal issue, President Carlos Alvarado will try to improve his relationship with the unions of the educational sector of the country facing another upcoming discussion: reforms to public employment.
The president summoned a meeting for January 29th, with the union leaders of the National Magisterium to his office in the Presidential House to discuss this issue that is sensitive for the education sector, as the discussion will go through aspects such as performance evaluation, training, incentives and particularities of the education sector. In addition to the issue of public employment, the government also wants to talk with trade unionists about the dual education plan.
Before the meeting with the president, the Ministers of Education and Labor; Edgar Mora and Steven Nuñez, will meet with the representatives of the National Association of Educators (ANDE), the National Union of Educators (SEC) and the Association of Teachers of Second Teaching (APSE) on January 23rd.
In addition, they will also be received on January 25th by the Planning Minister, Pilar Garrido.
Before the end of the year, the government announced that the basis of the public employment project will be the draft Law to Regulate Remunerations Additional to the Base Salary and Unemployment Assistance in the Public Sector, which was proposed in the last administration by former legislator from National Liberation (PLN), Sandra Piszk.
This plan proposes setting an unemployment cap of eight years for the entire public sector and advocates renegotiating collective agreements on a regular basis. It also seeks to put a ceiling on the annuities of 2.54%, and it establishes the rules to grant the payment of salary bonuses only to officials qualified as “very good” or “excellent”, and leaves out the “good” ones.