Panama/The company Minera Panama, a subsidiary of First Quantum, announced on the morning of Friday, December 8, that it has requested authorization from the Ministry of Labor and Labor Development (Mitradel) for the termination of contracts.
According to the statement, the request would apply to more than 4,000 employees for justified economic reasons.
This comes after, following the Supreme Court’s ruling, it received formal communication from the Ministry of Commerce and Industries instructing Cobre Panama to “end extraction, processing, beneficiation, transportation, exportation, and commercialization operations, as well as mining activities in general, and to take the necessary and reasonable measures and provisions to maintain the safety of facilities and prevent losses or environmental damage within the mining area,” drastically changing the situation for the workers.
They add that this measure will be carried out in parallel with the voluntary retirement program presented by the company on December 3 in collaboration with the UTRAMIPA union. In both cases, the benefits received by employees are the same, including the payment of legally owed money.
“The only difference is that the administrative process before MITRADEL can take up to two months to be resolved. It is important to clarify that some of the jobs will still be necessary to ‘indivisibly take the measures and precautions that are necessary and reasonable to maintain the safety of the facilities and prevent losses or environmental damage within the mining area, which is essential to avoid potentially significant environmental impacts,” they state.
They conclude by reiterating Cobre Panama’s willingness to engage in open and constructive dialogue with the government, addressing these and other concerns.
It is worth noting that the suspension of contracts for nearly 7,000 employees had previously been requested, but Mitradel rejected it as unfounded.
Since November 29, Minera Panama has requested and announced measures regarding its employees after the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional the contract that would allow them to operate for 20 years, extendable, citing 25 violations of the Panamanian Constitution.
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