00:00With the passage of the Employment Per Hour Law and the Economic Reactivation Law,
00:05the Honduran government has created a new framework under which Honduran workers have lost historical rights,
00:11such as the right to a living wage and the accrued benefits in case of dismissal.
00:16More information from Gerardo Torres Alaya in Honduras.
00:21The Employment Per Hour Law was repealed during Shemona Castro's administration,
00:25but has been reinstated by the current administration.
00:28According to official data, the law has not created 100 new jobs.
00:33Instead, it has served to modify contracts and pay workers less, forcing them to accept this new employment arrangement.
00:42The government of President Xiomara Castro promoted the repeal of the hourly employment law
00:49due to the failures that occurred during the decade in which it was in force.
00:53Firstly, and fundamentally, this law is unconstitutional.
00:58It is a law that distorts and diminishes labor human rights, and also this law reduces the income of families.
01:06While the Employment Per Hour Law reduces workers' rights, the so-called economic reactivation law allows for mass layoff without
01:14recognizing worker rights.
01:22This economic reactivation law cannot supersede the constitution of the republic or international treaties,
01:29and the labor code clearly states in its article number three that any clause or contract that diminishes workers' rights
01:35is null and void.
01:38During Shemona Castro's administration, 400,000 people were no longer unemployed,
01:42and poverty was reduced by 10 percentage points.
01:45Respect for labor rights was key for these achievements.
01:48The main problem in the Honduran labor market is not unemployment, but the precariousness of working conditions.
01:58The decrease in underemployment due to the reduction of working hours, or the reduction of income is also reducing inequality.
02:05In the past administration, we saw an increase in the middle class, and a reduction in poverty, and extreme poverty.
02:16Honduras is experiencing a setback in the progress workers have made.
02:20The neoliberal logic in which economic development is measured solely by the prosperity of large corporations,
02:26and not by the improvements in the living conditions that the population has quickly been reinstated.
02:31Reporting for Telesur in English, from Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Gerardo Torres Zelaya.
02:35Thank you very much.
