Private sector backlash to snap holiday

AN EARLY morning snap decision by President Juan Carlos Varela to declare Wednesday, October 11 a public holiday because Panama had qualified for the 2018  World Cup, has received a cool response from the business community.

His early morning Tweet announcing  that to mark the “historic” occasion.  Wednesday would be free for public sector and private sector workers and schools,´ was the first indication that most businesses received and many workers were already on their way when the news reached them.

The private sector says  that  they  need to be consulted on a measure of this magnitude should also be consulted with them, not only because of the uncertainty and the economic impact on companies,but also because “the image of the logistics hub is also affected, since not in all cases was our excuse well received. “

Demosthenes Perez, president of the Logistics Business Council (COEL) said that  He argued that in the industry there was “great uncertainty in the early hours of the morning.

“We had to initiate a notification plan to all our international customers who, for of course, did not understand how their business was going to be affected by a celebration, ”  said Perez.

“October is one of the months with the greatest volume of work in the sector, and the distribution of regional products is not stopped because in our country we decree a holiday in the early hours leaving us with no opportunity to react. The loads have to be moved but programmed  orders of entry and exit of were stopped. “

Apart from the fact that there are still no figures on what has been stopped, the  COEL warned that “we will have to assume the overtime and other expenses related to complying with the promise of service. So the monetary losses are high,” said Perez

The Colón Free Zone Users Association (ZLC) also expressed concern at the unilateral measure of the Government: “We regret the exclusion of the private sector in the making relevant decisions that have an impact on the growth of the country. “

The president of the Association, Usha Mayani, said that the administration of the ZLC is public and that on Wednesday there was no logistical movement in the sone  “The ZLC platform handles 71% of all Panama’s logistics, which is stopped while the logistics world is still working “.

Although the Association does not have an official calculation of the economic impact for the holiday, using the figures for the January-July trade movement of $ 11.64 billion, it can be estimated that daily transactions in the ZLC range from $ 75 million to $ 85 million. says La Prensa.

Héctor Cotes, president of the Panamanian Association of Business Executives (APEDE), said that he did not know the economic loss, the day off brought with its an impact on private companies because they are going to have to face additional costs to make the payment of time and a half for those who arrived for work in malls, restaurants and supermarkets,