google translated the following: http://www.telemetro.com/nacionales/Pequenos-amenazados-desorden-migratorio-Panama_0_1019598274.html
Opening a restaurant in Panama would not be a decision that Sofia would repeat. This young South American invested in the country attracted by its prosperity, without suspecting that a tangled labor and migratory framework would put its business at the end of a ravenous food chain.
The exotic dishes of his family have been successful among a varied public and the full tables speak well of their accounts, but the truth is that a visit of a public official would put it a step away from bankruptcy.
Of the five people he employs, four are foreigners without a work permit, the only option left to him in the difficulty of finding qualified local personnel or foreigners with documents in order and who remain in his position.
But he lives in distress, because for each one of them he would have to pay fines of up to 500 dollars if he touches the Migration door, the Ministry of Labor or the Health, figures that are not included in his budget.
"Getting people in Panama has been the most complicated thing. If I had known the problem I was in, I did not choose this country," he told Efe.
Most of the regularized Panamanian or foreign workers who have hired leave the post shortly, despite receiving the salary and benefits indicated by the law.
Employees in the sector know that there is work just around the corner because the restaurant business continued to expand until 2015, in line with the regional engine in which the Panamanian economy became.
The small restaurant has been maintained thanks to the "solidarity" of the inspectors, who in return for turning a blind eye ask for what is in the small box. Thus, what Sofia saves on taxes and Social Security for its employees, ends up in the pocket of an official.
The situation is worse for an initiative of the Ministry of Labor to increase fines for employers who relapse in the hiring of undocumented aliens, a measure not opposed by the business sector, which nevertheless requires parallel actions to quench the lack Of labor in some sectors.
The director of the Association of Restaurants and Allied in Panama (ARAP), Domingo De Obaldía, believes that the proposal of the fines is "a form of distraction", because the Government is not taking its part: deporting who is illegal and Sincere immigration rules to prevent a tourist from staying in Panama so long to have to work.
"If for example I contract a person because I do not have nationals, and they fine me, I pay the money, but the government to that person has to deport and does not do it." Then they want to apply a rule to say that they are doing something, But they are raising funds without solving the problem, "he told Efe.
He also warns that the system allows the foreigner to exploit, who does not receive benefits and sometimes pays the employer the money equivalent to the sanction, to tie up his position.
Panamanian Labor Minister Luis Ernesto Carles dismisses in a statement to Efe that the project to increase fines will increase the salaries of properly documented employees, who are increasingly in demand.
He assures that it seeks rather to give security to the migrant worker and to curb the unfair competition denounced by hotels and restaurants that comply with the law.
For Sofia, that disloyalty is somehow fictitious, because the money goes out of the box as if it paid all the benefits. That is why he would like to get well-trained legal employees and put an end to the terror of inspections.
De Obaldía recognizes the lack of skilled labor for some industries, such as public care, and believes that one solution is to allow the regularization of people for vacancies difficult to cover, but above all to provide training to approximately 200,000 unemployed young people from Panama.
In the same direction, the president of the Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture, Jorge García, points out that the core of the problem is education, but that some rules should be relaxed in the framework of a sophistication of the migratory system to attract Who give greater contribution to the economy.
Replies
Ever the optimist...;-)
Altho I might be inclined to agree in respect to the country as a whole for long term, as I understand it, high priced properties are still moving in Boquete.......A lot of North Americans still see it as a refuge........and it could be..........
We hope so but there's never any guaranties that the Chiriquí Highlands will still be an attractive location for North Americans in the future. I tend to think 5 to 8 years ahead not so much short term. That's what is missing in Panama "visionaries"
Its pretty rough but I get the gist of it........Its a complicated issue, and there is a definate labor shortage in this country, and there are many locals who simply dont have any interest in working......just like in Hawaii, if a foreigner on a tourist visa shows up wanting to work, Im gonna hire em.......Ive used Argentinians, Peruvians, Mexicans, Israelis and more and they all worked good, better than the local Hawaiians who typically dont like working............the govt here is terrible and corrupt from top to bottom and is more part of the problem than the solution.......Personally I dont think I want to deal with them for much longer.........I see the way it works here, and it doesnt suit me..........They cant even pick up the garbage all over the main roads..........pathetic really!
Wherever there is a "market" for illegal or undocumented workers there is only one reason for it: DEMAND.
There are certain jobs natives won't do for the wages offered and that's where the demand for cheap "alien labor" comes from.
Unless corporate greed gives way to higher wages even for the most basic jobs (e.g. by minimum wage regulations that allow people to live on what they earn) this problem will never go away.
Patrick, editing is required with a Google translation in order to make it comprehensible.