Indigenous People

The Constitution protects the ethnic identity and native languages of indigenous people and requires the Government to provide bilingual literacy programs in indigenous communities. Indigenous people have legal rights and take part in decisions affecting their lands, cultures, traditions, and the allocation of natural resources. According to the 2000 Census, indigenous people numbered approximately 285,000 (approximately 9 percent of the population) and had the same political and legal rights as other citizens. There are indigenous reserves for five of the country's seven native groups, including the Embera-Wounaan, Ngobe-Bugle, and Kuna. Tribal chiefs govern each reserve. The much smaller Bri-Bri (approximately 2,500 members) and Naso (approximately 3,000 members) tribes, residing near the border with Costa Rica, did not have officially recognized enclaves.

The Ministry of Government and Justice maintained an Office of Indigenous Policy. Federal law is the ultimate authority on indigenous reserves, but local groups had considerable autonomy. For example, the Government recognized traditional Kuna marriage rites as the equivalent of a civil ceremony. Laws protect intellectual property rights of indigenous artwork and establish regulations for artisan fairs. Despite legal protection and formal equality, indigenous people generally had higher levels of poverty, disease, malnutrition, and illiteracy than the rest of the population. The poverty rate among the entire indigenous population was estimated between 85 and 96 percent, depending on the group. Discrimination against indigenous people was widespread.

Kuna Yala leaders have succeeded in enforcing their territorial boundaries and maintaining their cultural integrity. There were two Kuna-Yala and four Ngobe legislators (see Section 3). Other indigenous groups had not succeeded in using their autonomy to preserve their culture or develop economic independence. Most lived in extreme poverty and isolation.

Due to their often poor mastery of Spanish, indigenous populations often misunderstood their rights and failed to employ legal channels when threatened. In addition, legal tribunals were unavailable in indigenous areas. The problem was exacerbated by government inattention to indigenous problems. The Kuna comaraca Madugandi complained of encroachment by settlers who were deforesting the comarca. The Ngobe were under threat due to the isolation of their reserves, encroachment by settlers, and generalized poverty. The Embera-Wounan struggled to protect their intellectual property in medicinal plants. Indigenous workers frequently did not receive the basic rights provided by the Labor Code, such as minimum wage, social security benefits, termination pay, and job security. Indigenous laborers in the country's sugar, coffee, and banana plantations worked under worse conditions than their nonindigenous counterparts. Indigenous migrant workers were unlikely to be provided with quality housing or food, and their children were much more likely to work long hours of heavy farm labor than nonindigenous children (see Section 6.d.).

In August, violence erupted between a group of Embera-Wounan and nonindigenous settlers in a land dispute in the district of Chiman, less than 200 miles east of Panama City. The PNP posted approximately 55 frontier police in the area to avoid further armed conflict. At year's end, the situation had stabilized and the additional police had been removed from the area.

The law prohibits discrimination against persons with HIV/AIDS in employment and education, but discrimination was common in practice due to ignorance of the law and of HIV/AIDS. The Government provided treatment for HIV/AIDS in at least 80 percent of cases through the Ministry of Health and Social Security; however, the Government had problems maintaining retroviral medication in stock. In December, the First Lady, President Torrijos, and two government ministers participated in an HIV/AIDS awareness event.

a. The Right of Association

Private sector workers had the right to form and join unions of their choice, subject to the union's registration by the Government. The Labor Code establishes the minimum size of unions at 40 workers and permits only one "establishment union" per establishment to represent the workers of that establishment, but umbrella unions based on skill groups may also operate in the same establishment. The Code provides that if the Government does not respond to a registration application within 15 days, the union automatically gains recognition with all rights and privileges under the law. Associations of unions complained that such automatic registration did not function in practice. Employees of small companies may organize under a larger umbrella group of employees with similar skills and form a union as long as they number at least 40. The code also allows labor leaders to keep their union positions if fired from their jobs. Approximately 10 percent of the total employed labor force was organized.

As of September, the Government had not made any additional payments to 270 public sector electricity and telecommunications workers whose dismissal the Inter-American Court of Human Rights had found improper in a 2001 ruling.

The Government and political parties exercised political, ideological, and/or financial influence over some unions.

The law provides all private sector and most public sector workers with the right to organize and bargain collectively, and private worker unions exercised it widely. The Labor Code establishes a conciliation section in the Ministry of Labor to resolve private labor complaints and provides a procedure for mediation.

Public workers had an association consisting of 19 public workers associations, but it did not strike or negotiate collective bargaining agreements because only approximately 8 percent of government workers were protected from arbitrary dismissal as certified career employees. At year's end, the Ombudsman's office reported that it had received over 200 complaints of unjustified dismissal from public employees. The law grants some public employees a limited right to strike, except for those in areas vital to public welfare and security, such as the police and health workers. At least 25 percent of the workforce must continue to work to provide minimum service in the case of administrative workers, and 50 percent must continue to provide service in the case of workers providing "essential public services," such as transportation, firefighting, telecommunications, and mail.

The law governing the autonomous Panama Canal Authority prohibits the right to strike for its 8,400 employees, but does allow unions to organize and to bargain collectively on such issues as hours and safety and provides for arbitration to resolve disputes.

Employers in the retail industry commonly hired temporary workers to circumvent labor code requirements for permanent workers. Temporary workers were excluded from social security benefits, job security, and vacation time. In lower-skilled service jobs, employers often had some employees under "three-month contracts" for years, sometimes sent such employees home for a month, and then rehired them. Employers also circumvented the law requiring a 2-week notice for discharges by laying off some workers 1 week before a holiday. In addition, due to labor laws that made it difficult to fire employees of 2 years or more, it was not uncommon to hire workers for 1 year and 11 months and subsequently lay them off.

Employers, following a 2000 Supreme Court ruling, increasingly negotiated directly with unorganized workers before unions formed or had a majority presence in the workplace.

Unions and collective bargaining are permitted in export processing zones (EPZs). A strike is considered legal only after 36 workdays of conciliation are exhausted; otherwise, striking workers can be fined or fired. A 1998 ILO observation noted that this regulation did not mention arbitration or specify procedures to resolve disputes in the courts and called on the Government to amend the EPZ labor regulations to conform with international norms. The Government responded that it considered the time limits reasonable and that the parties may have recourse to arbitration. The same labor laws governing EPZs applied to the more recent Call Centers. There were approximately 1,000 EPZ employees and several times more Call Center employees. Minimum wage provisions applied in the EPZs and Call Centers, and wages were generally higher in the Call Centers than in the economy as a whole. In the EPZs, workers could agree to take the Labor Code's compulsory Sunday rest period on another day and to overtime compensation based on a straight 25 percent differential, compared to a complex and costlier system under the Labor Code.

In July, the Government created a special economic area in the former Howard Air Force Base Area. The law creating the area contains provisions intended to create greater labor flexibility similar to the minimum wage and required rest day provisions in the EPZs.

The problem of child labor in agricultural areas fell most heavily on indigenous families, who often migrated out of their isolated reserves in search of paid work (see Section 5). These frequent migrations interrupted schooling. The Government claimed that due to insufficient staff, it often was unable to enforce child labor provisions in rural areas (see Section 6.e.).

Child domestic labor was a problem. According to the 2000 census, over 6,000 children between the ages of 10 and 17 worked as domestic servants. A 2002 ILO study found that 47 percent of children working as domestic servants were 13 years old or younger and that 76 percent received less than minimum wage. Government enforcement of domestic laborer violations was weak traditionally because the place of work is a private residence; however, the Torrijos Administration began training its personnel how to request a warrant and proceed in domestic labor cases.

Children continued to work for tips as grocery baggers in urban supermarkets, many during late hours; however, there was some evidence that supermarkets began employing more children closer to the legal work age. Some supermarket managers claimed that the children actually were not employed by their firm, despite the fact that "baggers" conformed to schedules, wore uniforms, complied with company codes of conduct, and took orders from managers as if they were direct employees.

Many children worked in the informal sector of the economy. An ILO survey of children and adolescents in two areas of Panama City found that the majority of child workers were self- employed. The most common jobs were grocery baggers (54 percent), garbage pickers (11 percent), bus assistants (10 percent), and street vendors (9 percent).

The Labor Code establishes minimum wage rates for specific regions and for most categories of labor. The minimum wage ranged from $0.82 per hour to $1.56 per hour, depending on the region and sector. This wage was not sufficient to provide a decent standard of living for a worker and family. In August 2003, the Government raised the base minimum wage by an average of 4 to 5 percent, depending on sector, region, and company size, as part of a legally required review of the minimum wage. Public workers do not fall under the Labor Code and were not included in the group of beneficiaries. Most workers formally employed in urban areas earned the minimum wage or more; however, about one-third of the population worked in the large informal sector and earned far below the minimum wage. This was particularly the case in most rural areas, where unskilled laborers earned $3 to $6 per day, without benefits; the Government did not enforce labor laws in most rural areas.

The Labor Code establishes a standard workweek of 48 hours and provides for at least one 24-hour rest period weekly.

The Ministry of Labor is responsible for enforcing health and safety standards and generally did so. The standards are fairly broad and generally emphasize safety over long-term health hazards. Inspectors from both the Ministry of Labor and the occupational health section in the Social Security Administration conducted periodic inspections of hazardous employment sites and responded to complaints; however, the Government failed adequately to enforce health and safety standards. Construction workers and their employers were notoriously lax about conforming to basic safety measures and approximately 20 construction workers died during the year. In 2001, the Ombudsman's office published a special report on the use of chemical pesticides in the banana industry, where poisoning by chemical agents was a recurrent problem and workers often worked, slept, or ate without proper protection. The situation improved, but problems continued, especially in remote areas. Complaints of health problems also continued in the cement and milling industries.

Workers also have the right to remove themselves from situations that present an immediate health or safety hazard without jeopardizing their employment. They generally were not allowed to do so if the threat was not immediate but may request a health and safety inspection to determine the extent and nature of the hazard.