Panama Seizes Company Revisalud for Unpaid Worker Wages

The reaction of Muñoz comes after the company informed them that it could not honor the payment of worker benefits. Jackeline Muñoz, Minister of Labor and Labor Development, confirmed that this Wednesday the order for the seizure of the company Revisalud was executed, which in recent years was in charge of collecting waste in San Miguelito, but whose contract is about to expire. She said that there are several proposals on the table and that President José Raúl Mulino has instructed to find a way for a bank to provide this fund so that workers have their money while the company completes the payments. In this sense, Muñoz indicated that the Central Government decided to take control of waste collection in San Miguelito to prevent a health issue and to honor the workers' benefits. "Tomorrow (Thursday) they have a pending payroll and we want to find a way to honor it because the payroll is not contemplated within the seizure and we need the worker to be paid, since the company's contract expires on the 18th," reiterated Muñoz. Meanwhile, Marlos Allen, General Secretary of the Federation Union, stated that he is satisfied with the preventive seizure and the support of the national government, but acknowledged that they have a bigger problem and that the company has communicated that due to the seizure it will not pay salaries. "Today the seizure request was executed and several banks have made the necessary restrictions so that workers can have the funds and start the legal procedures, which are not so fast, and guarantee that the workers' benefits are guaranteed," he expressed. Previously, it had been agreed that the company would deposit $1.5 million of the workers' benefits into the ministry's reconciliation fund, a situation that did not occur. "I am concerned about what will happen here tomorrow and the first thing we unionists do is that no one enters and no one leaves," he added. "We are chasing benefits from 20 years ago, we are chasing a seizure and there are executed cases, that is, there is a garnishment, and they have not even complied with that," Allen expressed on TVN.