The very trade union leaders that used to appear on television denouncing irregularities in the public administration have all but disappeared from the public arena. The reason is simple: they are now government employees.
While maintaining the titles and positions they held in the organizations they had for years represented, many are now acting as legal advisers or representatives of the state in negotiation tables.
For that, most receive salaries no lower than $3,500 per month. In the most recent case, which was denounced by a group of healthcare trade unionists, the salary of the representative of the National Coordinator of Trade Union Professionals in the healthcare sector (Conagretprosa), Alvaro Lozano, reached $4,364.
Mr. Lozano has clocked up no less than five public functions which entitle him to public remuneration.
First of all, he is a member of the executive board overseeing improvements in the National Public Healthcare system. Secondly, he acts as general secretary of the National Association of Radiologists, a role that he allegedly abused by threatening some CSS leaders with retribution, according to his critics.
Thirdly, Mr. Lozano receives $1,795 per month has an X-ray technician at the Children’s Hospital, where nevertheless his working hours are not specified. He also allegedly works regular shifts at the Irma Tzenatatos Hospital.
Additionally, Mr. Lozano acts as the representative of the National Coordinator of X-ray Technicians.
However, according to his detractors, this year he has failed to turn up to any of the regular meetings held by the organization.
Mr. Lozano is not the first trade unionist from the healthcare sector taking up paid positions in government.
At the beginning of the current administration, Fernando Castañeda was reinstated to the position of leader of the National Medical Negotiating Commission (Comenenal).
Additionally, the government of President Juan Carlos Varela has ensured that other trade union leaders keep silent over the actions of his administration.
The government appointed Mariano Mena, former secretary general of the General Union of Workers of Panama (CGTP) and former speaker for the vanished front for democracy, to an advisory position that pays a $5,000 salary.
Sailing from the same organization, lawyer Samuel Rivera was duly appointed as secretary general of the Labour Ministry (Mitradel).
Mr. Rivera had previously acted as legal representative of the workers that had sued the president's family company Varela Hermanos of for allegedly failing to pay the minimum wage.
Similarly, the once belligerent Foundation for Citizens' Freedom, which represents Transparency International in Panama, found itself somewhat emasculated by the appointment of its executive president, Angelica Maytin, to the government position of anti-corruption tsar.
