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this is an interesting article..
so if I have a employee that is a computer guy and I ask him to please help and mop up an area that something fell on the floor he could literally say that is not my job???
It’s this stupidity is why i will never have an employee here ever again. Costa Rica keep shooting itself in the foot with these asinine employee laws..
I have 15 employee’s fulltime that reside in the Philippines.. that I could have easily given to young ticos here.
[b]Bill to punish mopping advances in legislature
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff[/b]A bill reported out favorably by a legislative committee Tuesday would give additional rights to employees in an effort to prevent workplace harassment.
The bill defines as harassment restrictions on the autonomy of workers and unjustified pressure by a manager for the completion of assigned tasks.
Also defined as harassment are unjust or negative criticism of performance and assigning jobs that are below or above the employee’s abilities. Harassment also would be reducing the workspace allocated to the employee or even failing to assign work normally done by the employee.
As always there is a lot of wiggle room in the broadly drafted bill, but the goal is to prevent what is known as mopping or bullying in the workplace.
The favorable report came from the Comisión Permanente Ordinaria de Asuntos Jurídicos, which would give labor court judges considerable power to remedy what they saw as violations of this law. And even though there is an active labor court case,
the self-described victim would be able to institute a criminal case.The proposed law, No. 18.140, also prohibits what appears to be eavesdropping on the communication methods used by an employee and any invasion into the individual’s private life.
In all, there are 16 specific acts that are forbidden, and employers are responsible for actions by other employees, too.
The measure is rooted in the section of the Costa Rican Constitution that provides for the right to work. The measure also is rooted in the work of psychologist Heinz Leymann who wrote extensively on mobbing, a term he coined.
The term covers all sorts of negative activities at work, including rumor, bullying, humiliation and isolation. When confronted with such a complaint, an employer is obligated to set up a three-person investigating committee of employees.
A summary of the legislative actions released Tuesday noted that the bill also would include public employees.
As you well know ‘davidd’ Labor laws in Costa Rica are very much slanted towards the protection of the employee which – depending on your politics – is great for the employee and maybe not so great for the employer.
Think of the power that the Unions had in years gone by and that’s where we are today in Costa Rica. Costa Rica is very much more Socialistic than where most of our VIP Members are from …
However, this hasn’t stopped hundreds of international companies from opening up their offshore operations in Costa Rica and hiring tens of of thousands of Costa Rican employees.
PS. I hate mopping too… 🙂
Scott
Ja! No liquids are allowed anywhere near my computer …
Scott
PS. You don’t think I have lots of employees do you? I’m a “one man band,” with zero employees and only hire people for specific jobs when required…
In a small office it may be everyone’s responsibility to clean up their work area and do “emergency” cleaning as necessary.
The way around the “not my job man. . ” routine is to put a responsibility list in the employee’s contract including specifics AND as many broad terms as possible such as “Any reasonable request of the employer.”
The specifics should be a list that the employee must check off each item and sign. There should also be a statement that the employee may be fired for refusing these reasonable requests.
Balancing this there may be a paragraph that states that the employer will not abuse these terms or use them for punishment, only for the efficient operation of the business.
With the proposed law as stated such wording will eventually become standard in all employee contracts.
In the US the law on such varies state by state. But in North Carolina you do not need to give any reason for firing an employee. If a smart-alec employee says, “aint my job” then the employer can simply reply, “You’re fired”. In places where the law requires a reason for dismissal a simple “insubordination” clause covers a lot of ground.
Scott
these laws affect mostly small to med business.. the large companies have lots of money so they dont even feel it.
truthfully
in my observations.. the talent pool here is very small
we cannot even build a baily bridge correctly 🙂
seriously
you mentioned hundreds of offshore hiring tens of thousands LOL
I am sure that larger tax benefits are at play for the reasons.. it not for the great talent here.
I start my work day at 9am here and i have all employee’s logg on at 9am my time.. on skype. we have a first meeting to discuss tasks and they log off for lunch for 1/2 hour and finish work at 4pm my time.
if they dont do a good job..
I fire them
no aguinaldo… no labor laws.. no anything
the only thing is they cannot go and clean the house 🙂
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