Reply #3: Cuba reveals grand plan for laid-off government workers

[Judi Lynn]

Cuba reveals grand plan for laid-off government workers
Published On Tue Sep 14 2010

By Olivia Ward
Foreign Affairs Reporter

Is it the dawn of freedom, or shock therapy, Cuban style?

That’s the question half a million Cuban state workers will be asking as they await layoff notices over the next six months and ponder how to find new jobs in private businesses that were illegal under former president Fidel Castro.

On Monday, the Cuban Workers Federation announced plans that could lead to 1 million public sector job losses ranging from the flagging sugar industry to tourism, agriculture and Cuba’s flagship health program.

It’s a major shift for President Raul Castro’s economic reforms, and a sign that his government is ready to cut its losses after decades of strict socialism, and two years of recession that followed disastrous hurricane damage.

“Our state cannot and should not continue maintaining companies, productive entities, services and budgeted sectors with bloated payrolls (and) losses that hurt the economy,” the workers federation said in a statement.

But it added that “job options will be increased and broadened” with new opportunities for non state jobs, including cooperative ventures, leasing land from the government for farming, and private enterprise like driving cabs, making bricks and piloting Havana’s ferries.

A 26-page Communist Party document, dated Aug. 24 and laid out like a PowerPoint presentation, was obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press. It explains what to look for when deciding whom to lay off. Those whose pay is not in line with their low productivity and those who lack discipline or are not interested in work will go first. It says that some dismissed workers should be offered alternative jobs within the public sector.

More:
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/861092--cuba-reveals-grand-plan-for-laid-off-government-workers