Rangers have several consecutive years appealing and complaining, looking for an improvement in their working conditions.
The tone maintained during the administration Chinchilla Miranda (2010-2014), with constant complaints of officials, is now repeated in the government of Luis Guillermo Solís (2014-2018), with apparent strike threats.
The point in disagreement: the payment of availability.
Roberto Molina, representative of the Union of Workers of the Ministry of Environment and Energy (SITRAMINAE) said that President Solís promised payment for availability.
However, the months go by and the promise is kept in the air -apparently- by ministerial decisions.
The union leader claims that in a meeting held in August 2015 with President Solís, he agreed to the payment of that benefit, provided for in the Wildlife Act.
Solís requested the Ministers to resume the appropriate procedures and assured officials that availability would be paid from October.
We were all happy, but October came and nothing happened,”
said the official.
Afterwards, the rangers requested an interview with José Francisco Pacheco, deputy minister of expenses, to ask for the payment of availability, the payment due to police risk and the payment for the creation of 50 new jobs.
Molina said that on Tuesday, after a meeting with authorities of the Ministry of Finance, no agreement was reached.
According to the explanation they received, a decree must be modified to the Wild Life Act to guarantee the payment of availability.
In addition, they suspect that in reality there are no resources for the payment of that labor benefit. Apparently, availability would be honored starting next year.