Businesses Warn: Wage Hike Risks Closures | Empresarios alertan: alza salarial pone en riesgo empleos

By El Diario:

Business Leaders Ask the Government to Respect Their Rights, Avoid Closures and Layoffs

THE PRESIDENT OF THE CONFEDERATION OF PRIVATE ENTREPRENEURS OF BOLIVIA, GIOVANNI ORTUÑO.

Private business leaders warned about the negative effects of raising the National Minimum Wage (SMN) to Bs 3,300 and demanded that the government respect their rights by adopting mitigation measures to avoid mass closures and layoffs.

The president of the Confederation of Private Entrepreneurs of Bolivia (CEPB), Giovanni Ortuño, said that the percentage increase causes deep concern among companies of all sectors and regions of the country, putting at risk the stability and operational capacity of thousands of productive and commercial units that face enormous difficulties in absorbing this government decision.

Ortuño recalled that companies are already dealing with a sustained decline in domestic demand, the effects of recent social conflicts, accumulated unpaid debts, and year-end obligations that strain their finances.

The CEPB requested an urgent meeting with the Ministry of Labor to address the regulation of two key articles of Supreme Decree 5516: the one referring to the increase in the SMN and the one that regulates individual or collective wage bargaining between employers and workers.

According to a press release from the confederation, it will propose that the drafting of the regulation respect business rights and take into account the precarious situation of many firms in order to prevent bankruptcies.

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