Due to the precariousness of the English language, in recent years’ companies in the Contact Center & BPO sector have decided to close thousands of jobs in the region and relocate their investments to other markets where they have no difficulty in recruiting qualified personnel.
Reports at a global level show that the command of English is one of the weaknesses at a Central American level.
Faced with the sudden change that the new normal generated in companies, employees are challenged to increase their skills to work remotely, adapt to more flexible contracts and refine their technological skills and cognitive qualities.
Telecommuting has become an everyday occurrence among companies in the region, which have had to adjust to the restrictions imposed by governments due to the outbreak of covid-19.
In the context of the economic crisis, it is estimated that companies in Central America have reduced the working hours of employees to an average of 32 hours per week.
As a result of the spread of covid-19 in the countries of the region and the imposition of strict home quarantines, demand for products and services has fallen considerably in most markets.
Restrictions on the movement of vehicles and people, and to some extent, the ban on office work, are forcing companies to reinvent their ways of operating and revolutionize their work culture.
Following the spread of covid-19, strict home quarantines were decreed in Central American countries. This scenario boosted the implementation of teleworking and forced companies to adapt to a new way of operating.
Eliminating "tax harassment", suspending threatening messages to the private sector, such as lifting bank secrecy, and stopping persecuting the formal employer is part of what Costa Rican entrepreneurs are proposing to generate more jobs in the next two years.
In Costa Rica, the business sector presented the Alvarado administration with a proposal of 113 actions to generate new jobs in the next two years.
After a home quarantine was decreed in El Salvador, the government intends to prohibit the dismissal of employees who do not attend work.
In the context of the crisis generated by the spread of covid-19, a proposal is being discussed that establishes that the employees of companies that are not allowed to continue their activities should be sent home with their salaries and benefits, and that they cannot be subject to dismissal, salary discounts or suspension of contract, nor be forced to take their vacation in advance.
With the recent signing of the U.S.-Canadian-Mexican trade agreement, a precedent was set for future negotiations, as this agreement sets binding labor conditions, such as making exports subject to the payment of a minimum wage.
For example, one of the conditions of the Treaty between Mexico, United States and Canada (T-MEC), which was signed on December 10, 2019, is that vehicles exported from one state of Mexico to the other two countries "must come from plants that pay wages not less than $16 an hour.
Although working from home is considered a non-wage incentive because of the flexibility and benefits it provides to the employee, this mode of work is not yet a trend for companies in Guatemala.
Implementing work from home or home office, is a modality increasingly popular among executives and professionals who see the benefits that telecommuting provides. However, this forces companies to make certain changes that, it seems, not all are willing to make.
Businessmen from Central America and the Dominican Republic ask that ILO Convention 190 not be ratified, arguing that countries already have regulations to deal with violence and harassment in the workplace.
The Federation of Private Entities of Central America, Panama and the Dominican Republic (Fedepricap), through a statement dated August 9, reported that they agreed to request from the governments "... the non-ratification of Convention 190 of the International Labor Office (ILO), on which there was already a declaration against employers, with the purpose of not harming the generation of jobs.
After the national unemployment rate remained at 7% between 2014 and 2017, it fell by almost 1% to 6.3% in 2018.
The occupancy rate is the ratio of the employed to the total EAP. It represents the degree of effective use of the human resource available for work. By 2018, the occupancy rate is 93.7%, that is, of every 100 economically active persons, 94 were employed, explains the Multipurpose Household Survey.
In recent years, the sector in Guatemala has lost nearly 30,000 jobs, because the high costs resulting from having one of the highest minimum wages in the region, makes it more profitable only to export raw materials, rather than making them in the country.
Vestex figures show that in recent years several jobs have been lost in the sector, given that between 2006 and 2018 the industry lost a considerable number of jobs, going from 82,109 to 53,636 places, equivalent to a 35% decrease.
One of the first actions of El Salvador's new president, Nayib Bukele, was to announce the elimination of four secretariats and the creation of two new ones: Innovation and Trade and Investment.
In El Salvador, the changes that are coming with the arrival of Nayib Bukele to power are beginning to be announced, since at the first meeting of the Council of Ministers it was reported that the Technical Secretariat of the Presidency, the Social Inclusion Secretariat, the Governance Secretariat, the Transparency and Anti-Corruption Secretariat, and the Vulnerability Secretariat, all created during the FMLN government, will disappear.
The growing trend to work for companies that offer the flexibility to work from home or in spaces outside the office, is modifying the employee performance and even triggering changes in the real estate market.
Experts on the subject say that Panama reports a growing trend, which consists of employees choosing not to work in eminently corporate environments and do so in coworking’s, cafeterias and avant-garde offices, or even work from home.
Because there is still no regulation for part-time employment in Guatemala, textile businessmen estimate that the country loses between 40 and 70 thousand jobs.
For representatives of the Costume and Textile Commission (Vestex), the high operating and labor costs in Guatemala cause businessmen to send cut pieces to Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua to be assembled.
Informality, access to social services and lifelong learning are some of the aspects on which the region's economies must focus in order to improve labor market conditions.
Representatives of the International Labor Organization (ILO) presented in San José, Costa Rica, the report "Working for a brighter future", prepared by the World Commission on the Future of Work, which describes the factors that affect work in the countries of the region.
Recognized Brazilian company of backhoe loaders, telescopic, articulated and other types of cranes looking for companies interested in representing the brand and distributing their machinery in Central America and Mexico. The company manufactures and sells telescopic,...
español
1839