4.91% Salary Hike Proposed For Private Sector Employees
Unionized private sector workers could see a 4.91% increase in their salary for the second half of the year. That was the offer made by the Unión Costarricense de Cámaras y Asociaciones de la Empresa Privada (Uccaep) yesterday, rejecting a union demand of 7%.

The proposal document was delivered by Kattia Madrigal, director of the Asuntos Económicos de la Uccaep,to the Comisión Nacional de Salarios (national salaries commission), who said that with their proposal the pay adjustment for the year would be 10.10%.

The Uccaep estimates that small and medium sized businesses will be most affected by increasing salary hikes, as they have the largest number of workers on minimum salary and have limited financial resources.

The Asociación Nacional de Empleados Públicos y Privados (ANEP) had asked for a 7% hike for the rest of the year on salaries beginning on July 1.

The secretary general of the ANEP, Edgar Morales, said that the proposal is a message by businessmen that they are unwilling to distribute the wealth that is coming into Costa Rica.

With the position of business, union leaders say they are not losing hope that the position of the government on public employees salaries will be different. The government is expected to announce next week its proposal for public employee worker salary increases for the balance of 2007.

The government is expected to make the announcement public on Monday, June 18th at 2:00pm.

The proposal stops short and is very mean, as businessmen send a message to society that they are not willing to distribute the wealth that is coming into the country, that they want to concentrate and