A Certain "Plan Escudo" in Costa Rica

So, our Government came up with this brilliant idea of preparing a "Plan Escudo" (Shield Plan) to get ready to face the crisis. One would think it's a great idea and these people, this Government should be patted on the shoulder for it. Well, hold your horses, homies! This is no other thing but yet another scheme to protect the interests of a few in prejudice of a whole nation. It is indeed advertized as something that will be oh-so good for the population, but truth is that it seeks to finally demolish our social guaranties. People could be fired far easier and without being paid as much as today or with no payment at all (and there's no unemployment social aid in Costa Rica, so make the numbers), work conditions can be changed at will (the will of the enterprise, you mind), and so wages can be subject to reduction. It is all sold under the shady label of "flexibilidad laboral" (labor flexibility), which pretty much means that the employer can do as it sees fit.

Though in the past years the labor conditions have deteriorated terribly in Costa Rica, this will finally give legal support to all abuses committed by the employers. You have to actually be very thorough to find that clipping today (thanks Hyne I do not give it up!), but last year, November 13th a Nicaraguan worker died due to the highly unhealthy conditions in which it was made work by the Hotel Rui. Of course, Hotel Rui had nothing to do because it outsourced the contruction to some other entreprise. Of course. Poor Hotel Rui, however, has been so unlucky that it has outsourced with a lot of enterprises that commit serious abuses against its workers. This Nicaraguan guy and his coworkers live in unsanitary conditions, among LOADS of dirt (and I mean even sewer dirt too), in very tight places. So, this man got sick and died. Other 1500 workers have gotten severely sick while working in the building of this hotel.

Bad, isn't it? Well, read the article I linked up there and you'll see more. If you can't read in Spanish or are too lazy to do so, worry not, I'll give you a bit of highlights here:

1. Employers take from the wage of the employees the 9% they have to for the Social Security, BUT they either never inscribe them, and therefore they remain without social insurance, or they report a salary 50% lower.
2. Working conditions are so rought many workers can't take it and are forced to leave. From their proportional payment, they hold back this 9% allegedly, to pay it to the Social Security.
   
3. Workers receive very reduced portions of food, often made in situ, under unsanitary conditions and served in dirty dishes and cuttlery.

Often these enterprises hire immigrants because it's easier to abuse of them, because they don't know the law (well, nobody, as a matter of fact), and they fear being deported. A case I know well is that of the cleaning ladies of our building. It is actually a shame that this Institution allows such abuses against workers. Most of these women come from Nicaragua, and have still their families, their kids there. In here they are made work with dangerous chemicals and wearing no protection. Once they cleaned my office while I was still here, and I, at a bigger distance from the chemicals, suffered a fit of asthma. The supervisor tried to tell me that it was nothing, and that the girl got the products wrong, but I was having none and told her to used only water in my office. Later on, one of the girls came and told me many of them have gotten sick for the product, but the company did nothing to change it, and instead claimed they were problematic and fired them without paying them a dime. This cleaning company holds up their wages for months, and doesn't care that they have no money even for getting the bus to come to work. The harrass them and if any of them starts befriending one of us, she' sent to another building or fired.

There have been cases of girls fired that never even got what the company owed them. Naturally the company holds back the 9%, but none of them has insurance.

This all happens inspite of the existence of laws and institutions created to protect the workers, so I wonder, what will happen in Costa Rica when the Shield Plan gives finally the green light to all the abuses committed against workers that are being denounced today and that the law fails to process?