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The delay in salary payments, the lack of interest on the part of the administrators to solve this and other problems and disagreements with retirement amounts are some of the main complaints received by the Central de Trabajadores de Cuba () and to which the utmost attention has been guaranteed.
At the end of 2023, there were 38,355 claims from members and non-members received at various levels of the union movement, with a balance between individual and collective complaints.
They related mainly to the national unions of: Agricultural, Forestry and Tobacco; Civil Defense; Commerce, Gastronomy and Services; Culture, Industry and Health.
An analysis of the complaints collected showed that 27% of the cases received were partially or fully justified, which demonstrates the lack of active and timely participation of unions in any conflict, as well as the weak representation of workers before employers.
William Sánchez Correa, an official of the ‘s Labor and Social Affairs Department, said that compared to the previous year there was a decrease of 143 cases.
What Should be Improved
Complaints are a right of affiliates and non-affiliates to present any concerns they may have to the organization. They can submit them in writing, verbally, by telephone or electronically to the Workers’ Attention Office, which in the capital is located at the headquarters, while in the other provinces of the country they are addressed by members of the provincial secretariat. Likewise, priority is given to having a lawyer in each territory to provide the necessary advice to workers free of charge.
Sánchez Correa reported that «one aspect that must be transformed is the lack of correspondence between the seriousness of the act and the application of the measure imposed by the employer, as established in the Labor Code and its implementation in the Internal Disciplinary Regulations of each center».
The highest rate of complaints and claims by workers comes from the provinces of Mayabeque, Havana, Camagüey, Santiago de Cuba, Guantánamo and the Special Municipality of Isla de la Juventud.
However, there are still provincial bureaus that do not receive any complaints during the whole year, an element to be taken into account because it shows the poor functioning of the union cadres, and an ineffective working system for dealing with complaints, together with the lack of accountability of the provincial committees of the .
In assessing the nature of the complaints received over the past year, Sánchez Correa pointed out, «it can be seen that 35% of disciplinary matters are related to measures of permanent separation from the sector, changes in jobs or fines on salary».
In the area of law, «64% is due to the granting of positions that were or were not announced, payment systems that do not correspond to the characteristics of the work center, payment of the monthly salary out of date, disagreement with the distribution of profits, delays and bad procedures with regard to social security; the reiteration of the non-recognition of years of service and the increase in the retirement checkbook for exceptional merits, the official pointed out.
A total of 202 complaints were received at headquarters in 2023, of which 192 have already been answered and 10 are pending. «Before arriving at our offices, they receive special treatment by the CTC’s general secretary, who receives them weekly, evaluates them and decides which union should respond to them.»
Sánchez Correa explains that the working system is further consolidated by direct cooperation with the national press. In the open mailbox section of the newspaper Trabajadores, for example, complaints and claims are received and processed for response or solution.
On the Edge of the Law
Ana Teresa Rill Revé, head of the CTC’s Legal Section, maintains that «the prior means of solution before taking claims to court are the labor justice bodies (OJL), which have undergone changes since Law 141 of the Procedural Code».
The OJLs, she elaborates, are made up, in addition to representatives of the administration and the trade union organization, of workers of recognized prestige from different occupational categories, which contributes to a more comprehensive analysis of each case.
Roberto Betharte Mazorra, head of the Department of Labor and Social Affairs, reaffirmed that «for us the OJLs are a unique experience because they only exist in Cuba; and this, together with the changes in the labor scenario and the actions of the bodies, is evidence of the workers’ participatory democracy, because they act where the dispute starts».
The Priority Required for this Task
Leobanys Ávila Góngora, member of the National Secretariat in charge of the Labor and Social Affairs Sphere, pointed out that «attending to workers’ complaints and claims is the core of the work of the CTC and its unions at all levels, as part of its mission to represent them. To this end, it is necessary to continue training grassroots leaders and cadres who join the organization in the rules and regulations, but above all to give priority to this task from the planning of the work and the individual plan.
«One of the issues that we have identified as a failure is the lack of accompaniment to the claimants during the process, which requires greater advice and demand to employers because the rights of workers are respected, to ensure that the Internal Disciplinary Regulations are updated in an effective collective bargaining.
«At the same time, the operation of the OJLs and their training is essential, taking into account that they are conquests of the union movement and bring the solution of the conflict closer to the collective, although with the Code of Processes (Law 141), if the bodies do not rule in the established terms, the workers can go directly to the courts.»
The important thing is that workers always find a timely and appropriate response to their concerns, which helps to strengthen their confidence in the union organization.
