Puerto Rican lawmakers pass controversial labor reform
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Puerto Rico's House of Representatives approved on Saturday a controversial labor reform called for by a federal control board overseeing the island's finances as part of efforts to improve economic conditions on the U.S. territory.
The bill, which now heads to the Senate, cuts the size of a mandatory Christmas bonus and the required number of vacation and sick days granted workers. It also allows flexible scheduling, lengthens a probationary work period to a year from three months and reduces overtime pay from double time to time and a half.
Labor unions have criticized the measure for eliminating workers' rights, but proponents counter that the benefits are obstacles to job creation and have contributed to the loss of 300,000 island jobs over the last decade.
Last month, the oversight board told commonwealth officials the labor reform needed to be implemented immediately given Puerto Rico's 13 percent unemployment rate, versus a U.S. average of 4.5 percent. The board said regulations related to severance pay, flexible scheduling, employee retention and mandatory vacation days and pensions should be brought in line with U.S. standards.
Gov. Ricardo Rossello, who took office Jan. 2, told the board in a Thursday letter that the measure addresses its concerns by "reducing the cost of doing business in Puerto Rico and creating a more competitive economy in order to attract new capital and allow the private sector to create much needed jobs."
The federal board was created by Congress to address Puerto Rico's fiscal crisis after the government began to default last year on its nearly $70 billion debt.
