Colaboradores en esta edición José Javier Rivera J. Rafael Fernández Lara Consejo Vicente Feliciano Solene Belardi Editorial Giovana del C. Miranda Garzola David Rodríguez Jonathan Forget Ailen Galván Casilda Quiróz Lidia Dominguez Lucila Rivas Milena Vergara Ana Sofía Corrales Mariela de Sanjur José Javier Rivera J. Giovana del C. Miranda G. Portada y Diagramación: Idalia Ballesteros Gabriela Melgar Donna Ballestero Rodrigo Gordón Fotografía: Mariela De Sedas de Sanjur Rivera, Bolívar y Castañedas @rbc_abogados RBC Abogados JULY 2017 Editorial PANAMÁ CANAL 06 PILOTS: LABOR CASTE Content 42. Polítics START AND END OF THE COTO CONFLICT 46. Panamanian Economy SAVING THE SOCIAL SECURITY FUND 57. World Economy IMF’S MANAGING DIRECTOR CHRISTINE LAGARDE URGES TO TAKE MEASURES TO STRENGTHEN WORLD GROWTH AND DEVELOP INCLUSIVE ECONOMIES 68. Environmental Capsule 70. Illustrious People THE ONE WHO HAS ARRIVED: EMMANUEL MACRON 74. Sports Capsule 84. Cultural Capsule Invited Writer Santos no levanta el secreto sobre el galeón San José 08 Consult Doctrine & Jurispru- dence BEYOND REQUEST FOR EX- Norms TRADITION OF PANAMA BY 18 RICARDO MARTINELLI of interest 11 Legislación y Economía July 2017 Editorial PRÁCTICOS DEL CANAL: CASTA LABORAL Giovana del C. Miranda Garzola [email protected] t is well known that number of collaborators ment, transfers and promotions are gov- who uninterruptedly serve in the Panama Canal erned by merit competition and based on the Authority rebuilds the 8 thousand people, most preparation, qualities, suitability and expe- Iof them Panamanians and that according to their rience of worker or candidate to each posi- efforts and sacrifices the Panama Canal pro- tion, preferring Panamanians over foreigners. vides a service to the world maritime commerce. In the same vein, since June last year, the coun- Based on this, base salary is fixed taking into try fulfilled its commitment to upgrade the in- account salary category, which is determined ter-oceanic route, allowing neo-panamax ships according to the position, allocations, re- to use the route to transport goods, efficiently sponsibilities and in each category there are and generating environmental impact savings. degrees and steps, which allows the worker within a category, prior fulfillment of the pa- According to current regulations, the Panama rameters can ascend another step and each Canal Authority has exclusive responsibility for one represents a better income or salary. the operation, administration, operation, mainte- nance, upgrading and modernization of the Ca- According to the General Regulation of Person- nal, as well as its related activities and services, nel Administration, there are eight categories in accordance with the rules Constitutional laws within which are, executive, management, expert in force, in order for the Canal to operate in a safe, professionals, non-manual, manuals, special continuous, efficient and profitable manner. manuals, special and miscellaneous specials. In addition to the base salary, workers The Authority is subject to a special labor re- may receive additional annual compensa- gime, based on a system of merits and equal tion for remaining available, bonuses, bo- opportunities, in such a way that recruit- nuses, gratuities or compensation, as 6 well as a reward and incentive program. engineers who largely assumed tasks of de- sign, control, the expansion project, personnel Likewise, they have at least five Collective La- who monitoring water quality and maintain- bor Conventions subscribed with: 1. Union of ing Canal’s assets, which are concerned with Pilots of the Panama Canal, which will rule un- preservation of the environment and the ca- til the end of 2021. 2. Non-Professional Work- pacity to produce electricity, water and other ers’ Unit, which groups more than 80 % Of the benefits for the country. Likewise, those who workers of the Canal which will run until Sep- are monitoring trends in use of the inter-oce- tember 30, 2019. 3. Professional Workers Unit, anic route with other strategic, logistic and effective until December 30, 2019. 4. Union of transport purposes and therefore the produc- Captains and Officers of Coverage (UCOC) that tive use of country’s geographical position. will govern for four years. 5. International Fire- fighters Association (IAFF), Local 13, exclusive It is within this context that a set of economic representative of the Firefighters Negotiating benefits that has the consequence of gener- Unit, which will be in force until June 25, 2021. ating an excessive remuneration is unequal. Worse still if the system doesn’t agree We have brought up these general elements, with a high productivity and with the pos- given that in recent days the amount of sala- sibility to optimize the use of new sys- ries paid by the Canal pilots has been made tem of locks in the extended Canal. public, which, using the inherited system of so- That is why it is mandatory that these is- cial stratification, is clearly superior to the rest sues be discussed with the utmost of the salary categories that Exist in the ACP. force, safeguarding interests of most of ACP’s collaborators and collective ben- According to information published by La Pren- efit that the Panama Canal must provide. sa newspaper in its July 17 and July 18 present year deliveries, the approximately 275 workers We can’t, under any circumstances, re- working in the Canal earned in the year 2016 peat historical error of the SUNTRACS that revenues of approximately 124 million dollars has generated a perverse sequel in val- between salary and overtime, this means that ue of constructions in our country, since 25% of the Canal’s budget goes to the payroll it is a service that must be competitive in of the pilots. They are without prejudice to ve- the offer of maritime services worldwide. hicles, special schedules, waiting area and pos- sibility of providing services to third parties. The historic responsibility of the Canal admin- istrator and his Board of Directors, at this stage There is no doubt that the Collective Agree- of negotiation of this Collective Convention, re- ment signed between ACP and the pi- quires firmness, economic fundamentals and lots, signed last year, set an exorbitant in- the ability to make decisions that are redis- crease in wages and other benefits that tributive over time and that are not affected by now gravitate on the profits of this entity. threats of force actions that affect the guarantee of uninterrupted service of the Panama Canal. Some of the distinctive features of the ACP part- ners are related to the continuous improvement Amanecerá y veremos… of their skills, for example the cable hangers, 7 Legislación y Economía July 2017 Invited Writer Santos no levanta el secreto sobre el galelón San José Fuente: Jesus Garcia Calero www.abc.es/cultura thousand meters under surface of the sea, near Cartagena de Indias, Regarding financing, Santos said that Awas discovered in December 2015 the there is already an investor overshad- wreck of a Spanish galleon, San José. owed by the secret that surrounds ev- erything and said that he is willing to Yesterday, in the colonial city, Colom- accept conditions that are still a mys- bian President Juan Man- SECRETS: tery but, if we listen to the uel Santos appeared to, as words of the president and had announced, tell “the The investor, the Minister of Culture, Mariana progress achieved” in fu- equipment and the Garcés, << meets the high- ture excavation of sunken financing remain est scientific, technologi- galleon on June 8, 1708. under state secre- cal and financial standards cy. There is no such required and guarantees a In fact, not much data was process fully respectful of offered, in fast-paced tele- reserve in purely the historical and heritage vision format that even had scientific projects, values of the galleon >>. a hostess, but if they were based on knowledge once again fed high expecta- sharing. The man will allow, in tions and adorned with patri- the words of authori- otic borders investigation, of ties, that Colombia ac- which Spain remains apart as if that galleon cess virtually unlimited resourc- had nothing to do with our history. It is also es and technologies for this project. the tomb of almost 600 Spanish sailors. 8 This unknown investor - worthy of a mon- Both the president and the minister, ac- ument next to Blas de Lezo if we believe in companied by the heads of the Colom- the praise of the president - is also willing bian Navy and the director of the official to hire the “best team in the world”, called archaeological institution, the ICANH, to make a turning point in archeology, But Ernesto Montenegro, didn’t fail to un- of which we don’t know anything yet. We derline the scientific challenge that the do know that a project like this needs a galleon poses: << Nobody has proposed multidisciplinary set of such a dig Complete to this specialists in archeology, TECHNOLOGY: depth >> As an archaeolo- oceanography, geology gist at the head of the project, and engineering to handle What has been Montenegro highlighted the ROVs and other deep-sea shown makes it pos- amount of historical infor- exploration vehicles. It is sible to ensure the mation collected, as well as worth remembering that highest technology the immense bank of images Spain has experience in available to specia- that already has after sev- this type of wrecks, since eral campaigns on the price. the Mercedes frigate is at lists. Expectations a depth of 1,130 meters. are very high in this One of the few new data of- regard. fered yesterday had to do The act of yesterday before with a map of the Colom- cameras was more a gala, gala of the gal- bian Caribbean, guarded in the Library leon, in which also it wasn’t revealed what of Congress of the United States that a will be the remuneration that will obtain Colombian investigator had found af- that unknown investor, so that it is still ter forty years dedicated to the search difficult to evaluate its intentions.