A bill promoted by Congressman Carlos Ricardo Benavides from the National Liberation Party (PLN) would ensure that those who participated in strike which were declared illegal get the corresponding deduction of salaries received during the days on strike and would also facilitate the application of penalties in the case of illegal activities such as road blocks.

Currently, the Labor Procedural Law contemplates the deduction of salaries as well as different sanctions, however, the way the law is written leaves these sanctions open to interpretation, for example, recently a Judge established that even though the strike of employees at the Santa Ana Municipality is illegal, the salaries can only be deducted if the employees don’t resume their work 24 hours after the declaration of illegality. This was considered by the major of Santa Ana as “unfair” for those employees that chose not to join the strike and that had to work additional hours to make up for the tasks of those on strike. In the case of the workers of the Santa Ana Municipality they were on strike for 37 days.

The bill presented by Benavidez would allow the institutions to deduct the amounts paid in salaries to employees while they were on strike once the movement is declared illegal; the bill will also try to establish sanctions for behaviors and actions that are currently not contemplated in the Labor Procedural Law, for example, sanctions to labor unions when they encourage their members to carry out illegal actions such as roadblocks. In addition, employers would not have to wait for a strike to be declared illegal to establish sanctions when the service the institution provides is considered essential.

The initiative received the support of 31 members of congress.