A Senate commission evaluates amendments to restore private-sector labor benefits

Puerto Rico Senate President Thomas Rivera Schatz opened a series of public hearings in the Commission on Labor Rights and Labor Affairs to consider new bills directed at restoring benefits and protections for Puerto Rican private-sector employees.

The proposed legislation seeks to reduce the nine-month probationary period imposed by Ley 4 of 2017 to a term of three months, as well as to raise the monthly accrual rates for vacation and sick leave for full-time and part-time workers. The bill also restores the historic formula for severance pay for unjustified dismissal under Ley 80 of 1976.

During the hearings, spokespeople for labor federations appeared and backed the restitution of the working class's acquired rights in the face of the precarization of employment. For their part, the Chamber of Commerce and the Puerto Rico Manufacturers Association expressed reservations about the measures' impact on business competitiveness, while the Fiscal Oversight Board, led by Robert F. Mujica Jr., recalled that any statute approved must comply with the fiscal-neutrality analyses required by the PROMESA law.

Source: NotiCel. https://www.noticel.com/legislatura/ahora/20260205/senado-evalua-enmiendas-para-restituir-beneficios-laborales/