News

Santiago. The change of cabinet made last weekend gives a more political twist to Sebastián Piñera’s administration in his second year in power. The arrival of the former senator of Unión Demócrata Independiente (UDI), Evelyn Matthei, at the Ministry of Labor and Social Security is likely to establish a new relationship between the government and the trade unions, following the Minister’s words that they would “start from scratch”.



The president of Central Unitaria de Trabajadores (CUT), Arturo Martínez, told Terra.cl that with Matthei’s assumption of office they hope the government will start fulfilling “the promises made by President Piñera during his campaign.”



According to the trade union leader, there are four outstanding issues: “1) the submission of the multirut bill, which has been announced but has not yet been completed; 2) the fulfillment of the promise to eliminate the pensioners’ 7% health benefit deduction; 3) the issue of the six-month postnatal leave for women, and 4) the strengthening of the law for better control and prevention of accidents at work."



Martínez stated that this was a good starting point since "these are issues that were proposed by the government itself but there are still no signs of any work in this regard."



ANEF’s Position



In turn, Raúl de la Puente, president of ANEF (Âgrupación Nacional de Empleados Fiscales), said that the assumption of office of the union leader and former senator "will not go unnoticed in this Ministry. She is highly capable, trained in economics, and right-wing oriented; but she has one disadvantage: her temper."



When asked about the work that lies ahead, the leader of the public employees noted that "very important issues were left pending with former Minister Merino. The dispute over layoffs in the civil service is, no doubt, one of the main issues to be addressed.”



"The former senator and now Labor Minister is aware of the situation of civil servants. She knows that the majority of the employees in the civil service have temporary, precarious jobs, particularly contract-based and fee-based employees [contratas and honorarios] (...) Besides, incentives for retirement that expired last year should be renewed. Although a preliminary agreement with the government has been reached, it is necessary to speed up the process."



Occupational Safety



The accident that killed a worker and left another severely injured yesterday after they fell from the 13th floor of a building under construction downtown once again puts in the limelight the issue of occupational safety of workers in Chile.



According to the president of the Confederation of Construction Workers José Santos Hernández, this is a challenge for the new Minister, given that "since the rescue of the 33 miners, the government has promised to establish new working conditions and better control.”

"Today, construction is still the country’s production activity with more deaths from accidents at work" due, in part, to the fact that "there is a lot of construction work and construction companies infringe basic safety regulations.”



Martínez, in turn, said that "this proves that big announcements are made but nothing gets actually done. In the case of the miners everybody brooded over the matter, gave their opinion, but then they forgot".



"We must strive for the country to sign the three ILO international conventions and create the necessary conditions for enhanced control. (...) Working in sectors like mining, construction, salmon breeding and even agriculture in Chile is always risky and may end in such fatal accidents," added the leader of CUT.



Author: Carlos Agurto López Terra.cl





Note: The term “multirut” means that the same organization operates under different company names.