LABOUR-CUBA:
The Challenge of
Boosting Productivity
By Patricia Grogg
HAVANA (IPS) -
Workers are facing
thorny questions related
to productivity, wages,
participation in
decision-making or
unemployment at a time
when the government is
discreetly adopting
measures aimed at
finally pulling the
country out of an
economic crisis that has
dragged on for more than
15 years.
The suffocating impact
of economic problems on
living conditions in
this socialist nation
was the focus of many of
the complaints and
suggestions voiced by
ordinary Cubans during
the widespread debates
called for by the
authorities last year,
after a key Jul. 26
speech by President Raśl
Castro.
"The problems of low
productivity and low
wages will be resolved
as each sector
implements the formula
of paying in accordance
with production levels,"
said Ariel Terrero, a
journalist and
researcher who
specialises in economic
questions.
"The ceiling for wages
should be productivity,
and not the other way
around," he remarked to
IPS.
According to Terrero,
wages should be linked
to performance,
especially in leading
productive and services
sectors, whose
development would in
turn bring improvements
in salaries in other
areas, like health and
education.
In February, the Labour
Ministry approved new
general regulations on
wages -- in resolution
9/2008 -- which extended
the system of
performance-based pay to
the entire business
community in Cuba.
The new system is aimed
at boosting
productivity, cutting
costs and expenses,
curbing energy
consumption, improving
the quality of goods and
services, replacing
imports with nationally
produced goods, and
increasing exports and
revenue flows into state
coffers.
When the recession broke
out in Cuba in the early
1990s, the purchasing
power of Cuban families
plunged. During that
period, the state
propped up dozens of
inefficient public
enterprises, continued
paying the wages of
thousands of inactive
workers, and continued
to provide free
education and health
care and heavily
subsidised essential
food items.
Experts estimate that
today, 15 years after
the peak of the crisis,
the average wage has
one-quarter of its 1989
real value, although the
nominal value climbed
from 188 to 408 Cuban
pesos a month.
In a country where the
overwhelming majority of
the workforce is
employed by the state,
it is estimated that an
average family of four
needs nearly twice the
current average income
to cover their basic
needs.
In 2005, the government
granted wage and pension
hikes to more than five
million public employees
and retirees.
A new increase announced
Sunday will benefit a
total of two million
people, including
pensioners, families
receiving social
assistance, and judges
and prosecutors.
In an article in the
Catholic magazine
Espacio Laical,
economist Pavel Vidal
wrote that workers
should receive a share
of profits, which would
strengthen their stake
in the results achieved
by the company they work
for.
For his part, Terrero
argues that improving
wages and working
conditions is not
enough. On his web site,
Cuba Profunda, he
advocates strengthening
"workers’ participation
in decision-making in
their companies or
workplaces," to
strengthen their sense
of belonging.
Labour leaders in Cuba
have acknowledged that
employees have become
less disciplined and
dedicated as a result of
the growing loss of a
sense of responsibility
for their own
performance, given that
property in Cuba is
state-owned, or
supposedly collective.
A Labour Ministry
resolution in effect
since April 2007
apparently did little to
change that. The new
rules prohibit workers
from accepting personal
payments on the job
outside of their wages,
using vehicles or other
equipment belonging to
their government
employer for personal
ends, and engaging in
personal income-earning
activities within the
workplace. "Serious
breaches of discipline"
listed by the resolution
are unexcused,
unjustified or repeated
absenteeism or
tardiness, abandonment
of the workplace during
the worker’s shift, and
low productivity.
Parallel to the
challenge of improving
economic efficiency,
authorities in Cuba must
restore the prestige of
work, especially among
the younger generations.
A 2007 study by the
Communist Youth League (UJC)
found that more than
282,000 young people in
Cuba neither work nor
study. The magnitude of
the problem is
especially alarming in
Havana, where 20 percent
of the working age
population does not
work.
The report attributes
the phenomenon to the
low level of education
of the young people who
do not work or study,
the gap between their
aspirations and the job
opportunities available
to them, and the
shortcomings of the
coverage and assistance
they are offered by the
relevant state bodies.
Many of these young
people prefer to do
whatever they have to do
to get by instead of
working, because
ultimately, they do not
need to work for a
living, said an article
in Trabajadores, the
weekly publication of
Cuba’s central trade
union.
But in the meantime,
"the country is lacking
labour power in
important areas like
education, health,
construction or
agriculture," it added. |
