Government of Ecuador opens dialogue with unions on draft labor law

Quito, 17 Mar The Government of Ecuador began a dialogue on Thursday with the United Front of Workers (FUT), one of the main trade union centers in the country, with which it will discuss a proposal for a labor law at work tables, the Ministry of Labor reported. “We have held a frontal dialogue, we agree that we need legal regulations that allow the generation of decent, decent and productive employment for all Ecuadorians,” said the Minister of Labor, Patricio Donoso, at a meeting that aimed to define the methodology that will be followed in those roundtables. The minister said that the bill will be strengthened by the contributions of trade unions and academia, and said that the unions will be informed of its details. “Next week the reform project will be delivered to the FUT and in 15 days a new meeting will be held to discuss the points to be strengthened and reformed,” he said. Donoso considered the first meeting this Thursday as fruitful and said that the construction, tourism, services and agriculture sectors will be the main generators of employment in Ecuador, and that the next round table will define the work schedule to be followed. The Deputy Secretary General of the Cabinet, Francisco Briones, said that the dialogue between the Government and the unions will be “inclusive, technical and circumscribed in legal and legal matters”, as well as “proactive to add and have strong proposals to solve the labor problem in the country,” according to the Labor statement. For his part, Ángel Sánchez, representative of the FUT, said that after that first meeting there were coincidences and expressed his willingness to establish consensus with the National Executive. He explained that for the dialogue tables each organization will have three representatives: one principal and two expert advisers on labor matters. “Until Monday, the project will be presented for analysis and on April 5 we will give our proposals and observations,” he added. The draft law on labour matters is one of the initiatives that the Government of Guillermo Lasso has to take forward, after last year Parliament rejected legislation containing a series of reforms of a tax, labor and investment nature, and which finally had to be sectioned by subject matter. Last October, the United Front of Workers presented to the National Assembly a draft labor reform that it ensured at the time, opposed the one announced by the Government, which it called “anti-worker”.