Cuba announces small private businesses can hire and fire labour

Tuesday, May 17th 2011 - 06:05 UTC

Cuba announces small private businesses can hire and fire labour

Cuba has given all small businesses the authority to hire (and fire)
labour and will loosen other regulations governing private enterprise as
part of the broader measures to reform the island's economy and boost
production, the government said in a statement.

The measure was the latest indication that President Raul Castro's
government has decided to loosen its grip on economic sectors that
include retail services, construction and transportation in favour of
private business. Last year, the government allowed some types of family
businesses and skilled trades to hire workers.

The government said that "the Council of Ministers agreed to extend to
all non-state activities authorization to contract workers and continue
the process of making more flexible regulations on self employment".

The Cuban government has also promoted small, family and cooperative
farming with access to the open market for their produce, in a desperate
attempt to limit the island's food bill and threatens scarce foreign
currency holdings.

The Cuban economy is dominated by the state, which employed about 85% of
the labour force through 2009. Last year Raul Castro announced plans to
lay off hundreds of thousands of workers and move them to what it called
the "non-state" sector as part of an efficiency drive.

"We're walking on a cliff" said Raul Castro at the time adding that the
least error and it's all over for the revolution.

In the years after the 1959 revolution, Cuban leader Fidel Castro, now
retired, nationalized all small businesses. Half a century later
capitalism is rapidly returning to overhaul an obsolete economy which
the regime admitted, has not been working for the last three decades.

Last September, the government began issuing new licenses, allowed
family businesses to rent space outside their homes, sign contracts with
the state, hire labour and seek bank credits, among other measures.

More than 200,000 new licenses have been granted since October, compared
with less than 150,000 that existed previously.

http://en.mercopress.com/2011/05/17/cuba-announces-small-private-businesses-can-hire-and-fire-labour