More trouble could be brewing at Panama Ports Company (PPC) as the enterprise plans to lay off 200 workers according to worker representatives.
Port of Balboa
The director of marketing, , Rommel Trostch, said the company was forced to take the "disciplinary action" within the legal framework against a small group of workers, which unreasonably interfered with the efforts of the company and employees to standardize port operations.
Trostch said that the layoffs had nothing to do with last month’s strike at the Pacific and Atlantic terminals and he did not confirm or deny the figure of 200 mentioned by workers but said “disciplinary action" was only for a group that perpetrated ??illegal and irregular behavior and in addition interfered with the operations of the port, details of which, were not specified. Manuel Navarro, Portal Crane operator at Cristobal said that the layoffs began since last weekend and that employees would take their cases to the Ministry of Labor.
La Prensa called the Minister of Labor Alma Cortez, asking if she knew of these allegations. However, an official who was not identified said that Cortes would return the call and would comment on the dismissals. But by early evening Cortes had not communicated with the publication.
