“Thanks to this initiative, sponsored by the Ministry of Labor and Social Security (MTSS), we have nourished our group with box office assistants, theater assistants, editors, and we still need specialists. We have welcomed them all into the great family of the Heredia,” said Leticia Vailleny Mustelier, Head of Human Resources at the scene of many of the great events in the Hero City.
Naomi Muriel Boga – 20 years old -, that same day in February, accompanied a friend who, through the local media, had found out about the Fair that would be held, “I was a little bored and I was excited to come without imagining that I would make my debut as a worker in this renowned place. I am one of the show assistants, I really enjoy what I do and I can’t take it anymore, we are in the preparations for the presentation of Pentaclown Habana,” said the young woman from Santiago.
For employment, multiple offers turned into solutions
Although the province of Santiago de Cuba has a workforce of 400,000 workers – around 280,000 in the state sector – there are several elements that cause certain entities to not have full staff: the negative balance of population aging in the demographic dynamics, emigration to other provinces and abroad; and from the state sector to the non-state sector.
In that sense, “our Ministry has established policies such as the reincorporation of retired people; multiple employment or double hiring – more than 5,000 people do this today in the province, mainly between the state and non-state sectors -; but the application of part-time work is still small, as is the hiring of students of working age (over 17 years old), and we only have about 300 university students who do it,” said Israel Antonio Riverón Sánchez, Head of the Department of State Employment in the Directorate MTSS Provincial.
The main protection that, in the economic order, the State offers is the offer of work, in each municipality there is the Labor Guidance Office and other spaces have been created to promote this activity, such as the employment tables – which are led by social workers in each popular council, which can still be perfected given that it reaches homes -, and “the Employment Fairs that take place in the communities and that ensure that the economic actors explain to the unemployed the characteristics of the offers with a high degree of interaction between employers and stakeholders,” said Riverón Sánchez.
In this southeastern province, more than 50 fairs have been held in the province, “every month we will develop them to reach the communities, especially because of the results: nearly 5,000 people unrelated to study and work have participated and more than 3 000 – of which 45% are young people and a similar number are women -, numbers that can fluctuate based on the permanence in the jobs,” stated the manager.
According to data provided by the Provincial Directorate of the MTSS, in these spaces, 85% of the economic actors that have participated are state-owned and gradually MSMEs, non-agricultural cooperatives, self-employed workers and other forms of non-state management are being added.
It is essential that all sectors participate and that municipalities prioritize what they need for their development. The largest offers are concentrated in agriculture, construction, services and tourism, while training centers channel the qualification of qualified personnel. The universities, the training centers, the courses of the Guidance Houses for Women and Families, Education, Culture and the Ministry of Tourism.
An outstanding debt is in the legalization of the activities that many people carry out informally. In the consistent and continuous action of all factors, informality as a form of work must be banished, so to speak, in a province in which more than 8,000 individuals have been identified earning a living in this way, and only 1 300 have proceeded to legalize their work.
To face these phenomena, “every month the need for a workforce is reconciled, because we also place graduates of military service, those sanctioned, graduates of trade schools, special schools and technical-professional and higher education. The offers vary between the municipalities because the capital has a greater infrastructure than the remaining eight; but the generality is that qualified personnel are needed, for security and protection, and also for trades such as plumbers, bricklayers, electricians, seamstresses,” assured the Head of the Department. of State Employment in the Provincial Directorate of the MTSS.
Achievements of Santiago, achievements of Cuba
Social workers and officials from the labor directorates reach the intricate areas of the Maestra and Cristal mountains. This is what happens in the employment tables of communities in the municipalities of Segundo and Tercer Frente, Guamá, San Luis, Palma Soriano and Santiago de Cuba.
For Euddy Rojas, a young man who was disconnected from study and work, it is a source of pride to serve as Inspector of Tourist Services in the branch of the Tourism Construction Company. For the system of organizations and institutions of the territory that make all this possible, it is comforting to know, in many other matters, of the multiple actions that, in Songo-La Maya and as part of the Employment Management Service, are carried out with the Military Construction Company. of Havana to recruit the workforce, exhibiting praiseworthy results, and of the 160 women who, at the same time, and in various parts of the province on March 8, joined the workforce.
