December 2004
General Inspector of Labor:
"In one month we will do another inspection"
Selvin
Martínez, the General Inspector of Labor says that in one month
the Secretary of Labor Inspections will be re-inspecting Delta Security
Services in order to verify whether or not they have followed through
on the their written agreement to make policy changes.
After the Association for a more Just Society (AJS) investigated the case, which, led to a petition for a full inspection of the company due to complaints made by security guard employees concerning their working conditions. Delta Security made a commitment to rectify the situation, signing a formal agreement on November 29 of this year.
Martínez
went on to say, "We are waiting more or less a month to do another
inspection in order to know whether or not they have complied with the
signed agreement. The investigation will tell us what exactly they are
doing. Our company has the ability to sanction them if they are not following
through on what they said they would."
He added that the most important thing here is that the company as well
as the workers continue to move forward with this agreement that has been
carried out. "I consider it not right that the company imposes on
itself a Lp 5,000 fine while the problems continue to persist. In this
case they have committed to rectify the problems that were verified such
as violating rights of workers. From now on, they will not be able to
get away with it.
Concerning the problem he indicated that there are times that maybe the
companies commit such violations out of ignorance. "I believe that
we as a State institution are here for this reason, to help both the company
and the workers in this. Know that we are going to continue to watch the
situation so that the companies at least comply with what they have already
said they would."
The inspector emphasized how much he appreciated AJS' intervention in
this case. "We have to play the impartial role in this case, while
AJS' role to defend the workers. There are times that we find ourselves
in the midst of many logistical problems. For this reason, AJS' intervention
has been important.
Besides all this, he expressed that the most important thing is to not
place blame on the company but to focus on improving labor relations.
"In this way we are able to find out what is really going wrong within
the company, if it's the owner or the worker because there are both good
owners and workers in many situations. We find that it is important for
you to concern yourselves with the well-being of the whole working class.
He made reference to the fact that there are other security companies
that have similar problems. "The Law gives us authority over these
companies, but there are many large companies throughout the country and
we can only inspect the companies in Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula because
we lack sufficient personnel and logistical resources. We have had to
stop trying to cover all the companies. The ones that have more claims
against them are the ones we go for to find out what's happening,"
he concluded.
Articles:
Interviews:
Selvin
Martinez
-Labor Inspector
Carlos
Ayala
-Lawyer for the
Secretary of Labor