Near 90,000 job losses increasing by 2000 a day

Scores of thousands of Panamanians are without a job after the companies took advantage of a  Decree allowing them to cancel work contracts because of the coronavirus pandemic.

As of Monday, April 27, some 5,515 companies suspended contracts for 96,481 workers in the country, the  Ministry of Labor  (Mitradel) reported.

Labor Minister Doris Zapata said that there are between 2,500 and 3,000 work suspensions per day.

”We are projecting that for this week we are going to have over 10,000 companies that will postpone contracts because most of them are from the tertiary sector, dedicated to commerce, ‘explained Zapata.

The minister said that it is estimated that it can reach 14% and, in more critical cases, up to 20%, but it is working on policies that can review the number of jobs, quality, and the most vulnerable sectors of the population.

Economist Gersán Joseph, said  “An error was made by the government in suspending the employment relationship,”

He indicated that the employment relationship had to be maintained, the non-suspension of contracts, in addition to having a measure such as in Russia and France, where the company paid one month of vacation and the State subsidizes a second month, in such a way as to maintain the employment relationship