During the meeting held this Thursday at the Presidential Office, the representatives of seven business chambers asked President Rodrigo Chaves for the prompt approval of the 4 – 3 workweeks law.
The initiative called for in the current extraordinary session will reform the Labor Code and would allow employers and workers to agree to work longer hours per day, but with fewer working days per week.
Under this scheme, for example, a person working a day shift would work 12 hours a day, four days a week, and would have three days off. The weekly limits must always be respected according to the type of schedule: 48 hours in daytime, 42 in mixed workday and 36 for night shifts.
Maritza Hernández, vice-president of the Costa Rican Union of Chambers and Associations of the Private Business Sector (Uccaep), confirmed the proposal of the productive sectors to the president. She argued that the plan would boost job creation.
The plan promoted by the Partido Liberación Nacional (PLN) is supported by most of the opposition in Congress, but faces objections from some sectors that warn, for example, that single mothers would have more problems caring for their children.
With the approval of this project, they indicate that the operating hours of the Child Care Network should be extended.
The vice-president of the Uccaep Board of Directors affirmed that the project is necessary, but said that they will also push for resources to be allocated for the expansion of the Child Care Network.
“The project is going to allow us to generate employment. I clarify that Uccaep is going to be vigilant and strong with the issue of Child Care Network, with a call to the municipalities and to the Government, because we also need to solve this matter,” the vice-president affirmed.
The Minister of the Presidency, Natalia Díaz, confirmed the Government has asked the business chambers representatives to identify, before the first 100 days of term, which are the different “bottlenecks” faced by each economic sector.
Díaz argued they will remove these “obstacles hindering development” through amendments to regulations, guidelines, bills “or any other administrative action.”
Throughout his campaign, Chaves vehemently reiterated his administration would focus on creating more jobs, allowing the private sector to work and address the country’s economic problems
