With the contributions of Cuban workers, state and non-state, including those providing collaboration and working in missions abroad, the draft bill of the Labour Code will be enriched, under consultation from today across the entire country.

Pilot assemblies in each territory will open this Monday the referred political and democratic process, the most important of the workers’ movement in the present year, as it will allow for a new, modern labour legislation that guarantees labour rights in a dynamic and diverse environment.

As affirmed a few days ago by Jesús Otamendi Campos, Minister of Labour and Social Security (MTSS), such an update has ceased to be an aspiration to become a legislative process underway, deeply participatory and with solid legal and social foundations.

Until 30th November the draft bill, published in tabloid form and digitally on various websites, will be analysed in work centres in meetings for that purpose, in which all possible judgements, suggestions and concerns will be collected.

Every worker, employer and citizen has the possibility to opine, propose and contribute directly to the construction of a law that will impact their working life, affirmed Osnay Miguel Colina Rodríguez, president of the Organising Commission of the XXII Congress of the Central de Trabajadores de Cuba (CTC).

According to Ariel Fonseca Quesada, vice minister of the MTSS, it is not only about modifying the already existing code, approved in 2013, but about discussing a completely new text, due to the substantive impact that many of its articles have in the current context.

In a recent Round Table on Cuban television, both Fonseca and Colina explained that the process of updating the Code has focused on five general aspects: the principles governing labour relations, access to employment, workers’ guarantees, the recognition of new forms of employment and the expansion of the scope of application.