Strike slams free-market policies

About 100,000 people marched through downtown Bogotá, Colombia, Aug. 12, as part of a 24-hour national strike against government budget cuts, a cost-cutting ballot measure, and the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas. The march began at midday, bringing together union members, farmers, retirees, students, street vendors, and members of leftist parties. It ended downtown at the Congress building where riot police and protesters clashed, causing minor injuries.

Called by Colombia’s main union federation, United Workers Central (CUT), the strike opposed reductions in government jobs, social spending, and pension benefits. Carlos Rodríguez, president of CUT, said 500,000 workers participated in the strike, the second nationwide stoppage in two months. The purpose was “not to paralyze the state,” but merely “to make people aware of how grave these economic measures are,” he said.

Terms of a $2.1 billion International Monetary Fund loan require the government to reduce its budget deficit which has already led to an estimated 40,000 jobs cut in the public sector in the last year. CUT is organizing a Sept. 9 march in Bogotá in response to the government’s policies. (Colombia Week)

Staff made to pay for toilet breaks

Employees at RSL COM, a company owned by Australia’s second-biggest telecommunications firm, say their bosses have ordered them to log the amount of time they spend in the bathroom and to record it as “personal time.” The email sent to employees containing the instructions said that all personal time had to be made up at the end of the day.

RSL COM is a call-center that requires workers to log seven hours of constant talking to customers, which requires lots of water sipping, which leads to frequent toilet breaks, especially for the company’s many middle-aged women, some of whom suffer from urinary problems.

According to a leading urologist, “Making people log on and off when they go to the toilet so you can keep tabs on them is not a good public health approach to the problem.” A spokesperson from the Communication, Electrical, and Plumbing Union, which has taken up the issue, described the monitoring as “a step back to the 19th century” that denied employees their basic dignity.

A statement from RSL COM said the company gave its employees a one-hour lunch break and two 15-minute breaks, that staff had misinterpreted the email, and that a clarification of the policy will be made. (The Sun-Herald)