Legislators from the ruling Citizen Action Party, Broad Front Party and Social Christian Unity Party last week presented a bill at the Legislative Assembly to reform the country’s Labor Law, including a proposal that would eliminate a ban on strikes by some public workers, approved by the previous administration.
The Costa Rican Chamber of Industries on Thursday blasted a new 3.7 percent increase in electricity rates requested by the Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE). Chamber leaders urged the Public Services Regulatory Authority to reject the request, noting that ICE in July promised to cut spending and stabilize its finances in order to prevent electricity rate hikes for the next year and a half.
Officials from the Water and Sewer Institute (AyA) and the Paraíso Municipality on Wednesday agreed to the first steps in addressing ongoing water shortages that in recent months have extended to two additional Cartago cantons.
During President Laura Chinchilla's term from 2010-2014, administration officials and lawmakers passed nine pieces of legislation and one executive decree aimed at helping middle-income Ticos buy homes. Yet despite the effort, little was accomplished toward the goal of increasing the number of homeowners nationwide.
After three rounds of voting, Costa Rican lawmakers on Tuesday night elected journalist Montserrat Solano Carboni as the country's new ombudswoman for the next four years.
Expectations for companies to hire new workers in the last quarter of this year have dropped in all sectors and are at the lowest level in recent years, the consultant company Manpower reported on its Costa Rica Employment Outlook Survey 4Q released Tuesday.
Leaders of the National Tourism Chamber (CANATUR) on Tuesday said they will use all available legal tactics to challenge a Finance Ministry order to start collecting 13 percent sales tax on all tourism activities, including several that previously were exempt.
Municipal officials in the southern San José canton of Desamparados on Monday confirmed that property owners in a protected area known as Mt. Tablazo are continuing construction in spite of cease and desist orders from that office and the Municipality of El Guarco, in the province of Cartago.
Following the detention last Friday of nine undocumented migrants on the central Pacific coast, Costa Rica's National Police carried out an additional operation Monday in the community of Paso Canoas, along the country's border with Panama. There, police detained 27 additional undocumented migrants, all from Nepal.
