Mithradel and labor justice: miners.

He Ministry of Labour did not seem convincing and appropriate, fair and legal, dealing with the situation of mining workers (First Quantum Panama), a situation characterized by
the uncertainty that created the positions of this company in relation to the declaration, through the judgment, of the unconstitutionality of law 406/23.

Positions of the company: 1. Request, allegedly, in accordance withl Article 198 of the Labor Act, suspension of the effects of individual employment contracts;

2. Notify the workers that they have been suspended from work, even though they have not yet exhausted the procedure or the processing of this request;

3. Tell them later, as stated in the company’s statement, and as if that was not enough, further exacerbating the insecurity of the workers, that the time has come for amicable agreements between the workers and the mining company and that the said agreement can be rejected considering that for certain workersdue to the type of service they provide, the company could still require them, that is, to continue working;

4. That is, the mining company assumed that the request to suspend the effects of the employment contract was a matter that would be given ope legis, i.e. by force of law, when the truth is that
there is or means the entire procedure specified in the second paragraph Article 201 of the Labor Law, which must be satisfied or fulfilled and after it is fulfilled, a decision is made whether such suspension is appropriate or not.

5. For Tuesday, December 5, very early in the morning, on a local television station, after the parties had met on the afternoon of the 4th, filling
procedure, the same minister announces, personally, that the said request for suspension was rejected or rejected as inadmissible.

I admit that I do not know the foundations or reasons for this Ministry of Labour decide or resolve the inadmissibility and therefore reject the said application for suspension of the effects of the labor contract filed by the mining company; However, it should be noted that if the Court made a decision on the unconstitutionality of Law 406, it no longer exists, as stated in the judgment, it is excluded from the legal world so that there are no more contracts on mining concessions, and therefore nothing that implies or in some way means jobs or work related to the exploitation of ores, proceedings of metal leaching, extraction golden silver copper, molybdenum, etc., becomes illegal even if the mining company insists on it By doing this, the whole sequence is created again and again for the second time criminal offenses ranging from criminal offenses against property – usurpation and damages, among others – even punishable acts in connection with crimes against environment and spatial planning without neglect or exclusion other criminal types. Already, per se, there are completed crimes that have occurred after By the judgment on the unconstitutionality of the Court of 21 December from 2017 to October 20, 2023, as well as after November 28, 2023, after publication and it is true that the company is still mining metals preciousness from the Panama mine, the largest gold mine and copper of the American Center.

Also, it is worth noting that Ministry of Labour could hardly agree to the suspension of the contract due to the fact that, simply, the subject of the work has already been extinguished or succumbed. Unless the mining company, as it has warned, decides to continue with the workers it needs for the process of closing, rehabilitating and retiring the mining company. After
Where is it appropriate?: Simply, the termination of the employee’s employment relationship with the consequent payment of all rights and benefits from work, absolutely all of them. For this purpose, pointing out that Ministry of
Work and work development, did not fulfill the protective function of labor law, always especially the protection of the weaker, i.e. workers, because it had to, ab initio, i.e. the first day after the declaration of the unconstitutionality of the Act, continue to protect bank accounts mining here and outside Panama, in order to guarantee the fair payment of these labor rights and benefits. There is still time for that.

Tomorrow is too late. Also Ramiro Guerra warns: “In addition to the above, we are of the opinion, given the certain fact about the definitive shutdown of that mining company, that the Ministry
Work and work developmenthe had to confiscate the company’s funds deposited in banks, in such a way that the rights and benefits of all employees were ensured.
workers.”

Secondly, what do the ministers of other branches expect, each within the scope of their powers, to start setting limits, boundaries, restrictions on mining which, seemingly and as behaves before, during and after the judgment of the Court, it is still believed with the rights to continue the exploitation of copper and gold, what nothing happened and that maybe someone will say or repeat to you: “Remember that with the judgment of December 2017, also of Supreme Court, you They continued to work as if nothing had happened, so Just keep going, no problem.” Fantasy reality? No, pure reality, Well, the CEO of the mining company himself said that recently, in Panama and This was recorded in national journalist media. God bless the earth!