President Lenín Moreno’s announcement that there will be no layoffs during the emergency by Covid-19 is breached
JOURNALISTS
The forced stoppage of productive activities in some sectors, due to the health emergency caused by the coronavirus, begins to generate a wave of layoffs in private companies.
At least 1,300 complaints of untimely dismissals have reached the Ministry of Labor, according to national union organizations.
However, President Lenín Moreno assured on March 15, on a national network, that there would be no layoffs. «Employers and workers must reach agreements on working hours and methods, there will be no layoffs,» said the president.
But today we see that reality is different. Many companies stopped generating income and decided to end the employment relationship with their employees.
In recent days, around 1,000 workers from the Colineal furniture company, the Confiteca company, the Edesa toilet factory and the Sports Planet restaurant were fired.
The employers accepted article 169, numeral 6 of the Labor Code, which establishes that “By fortuitous event or force majeure that makes work impossible such as fire, earthquake, storm, explosion, field pests, war and, in general, any other event extraordinary that the contractors could not foresee or that foreseen, they could not avoid it ”.
However, the application of this article is being used by certain companies to violate labor rights such as the payment of compensation.
Jonathan Toledo Padilla worked more than 10 years as a kitchen assistant at the Sport Bar S.A. restaurant, with a monthly salary of USD 403.12. On Sunday, April 12, he was notified with the termination of the employment relationship due to an act of God or force majeure.
In the settlement report there is a settlement of USD 278.71 corresponding to the working days of April, monthly reserve fund and proportional amounts of the thirteenth and fourteenth remuneration.
Another is the case of Pedro Walpa, who worked for 21 years at Edesa as a product dispatcher digitizer. He was notified of the layoff last Friday by email. He says that he was not even paid in full for his March remuneration and, by claiming, he received threats from the company.
If considered untimely dismissal, each worker must receive compensation of one salary for each year of service, plus a bonus of 25% of their salary for each year, according to articles 188 and 185 of the Labor Code, respectively.
Fernando Ibarra, of the Ecuadorian Labor Parliament, assures that in the emergency by Covid-19, article 169, number 6 of the Labor Code, referring to the fortuitous event or force majeure, cannot be applied, because the companies have not suffered damage material that makes it impossible for them to continue operating.
It considers that «it is a tricky way by which you want to break the rights of workers and evade the right to compensation for untimely dismissal.»
The National Assembly is debating a draft law interpreting article 169 of the Labor Code to specify the application of dismissals of workers due to acts of God or force majeure. But, until then, employers will continue to apply the standard, according to their interpretation and interests.
According to the Ministry of Labor, until March 25, 6,027 companies, at the national level, accepted the suspension, reduction or emerging modification of the working day.
Of these, 684 reduced the workday to 26,000 employees; 488 registered a change in working hours for 8,000 employees, and 4,855 accepted the suspension of the day for 89,000 employees.
The ministry authorized the reduction of the weekly working day from 40 to 30 hours for up to six months, with a renewal of up to six more months for a single occasion.
Until the Assembly clarifies the scope on the application of dismissal due to acts of God or force majeure, any claim of the workers must be resolved in the Ministry of Labor, which will take weeks or months.
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