Business leaders demand flexibility in the benefits system and labor immobility regime
The former president of Fedecámaras and member of the Administrative Council of the International Labour Organization (ILO), Jorge Roig, emphasizes the need to liberalize labor legislation to establish an optional social security system, where employees can choose whether or not to accumulate their social benefits during their employment relationship. The idea is that employees have the option to incorporate a portion of their benefits into their monthly salary if they wish, or to remain in the traditional scheme of collecting this liability at the end of the relationship.
TL;DR
- Jorge Roig proposes optional social security system allowing workers to choose between monthly benefit accumulation or traditional end-of-employment payout.
- Advocates for modifying labor immobility laws to allow flexibility based on a proportion of the payroll, protecting employment while enabling employers to make performance-based reductions.
- Highlights the "tragedy" of the disconnect between real worker income and legally mandated benefits, resulting in widespread salary informality.
- Notes a drastic shift in remuneration over the last decade, with 90% of worker income now in bonuses rather than formal salary.
- Identifies three key structural problems: benefits calculated on an extremely low nominal minimum wage, social security and pensions anchored to insufficient minimums, and the state's fiscal challenges in adjusting salaries.
- Considers the retroactivity of benefits in high-inflation environments a major obstacle to adequate salary strategies due to unsustainable uncertainty for employers.