Cuba's telecoms company to allow self-employed workers

Cuba's telecoms company to allow self-employed workers

(Globalpost/GlobalPost)



Cuba will allow self-employed workers at the country's telecoms

monopoly, Etecsa, in the latest in a series of economic reforms to

streamline a bloated government bureaucracy.



Under the new system, which was announced Monday on the etecsa.cu

website, private sector "communications agents" will be allowed to

assist with local, regional and international phone calls.



They also will be allowed to sell prepaid phone cards and Internet

cards, or reload used ones, and also will be able to take telephone bill

payments.



The agents, who will work on a commission paid by Etecsa, will be

required to obtain licenses and pay taxes on their earnings.



These new private employees will add to the rapidly growing ranks of

self-employed workers in Cuba since economic reforms have begun to be

put in place.



A growing number of Cubans, no longer workers of the state, earn their

living as restaurant owners or self-employed barbers, electricians,

mechanics and other occupations.



All told, there are about 200 sanctioned occupations in which Cubans are

allowed to work for themselves.



Government figures show that more than 436,000 Cubans are now

self-employed since the government began expanding the ranks of the

private sector in 2010.



President Raul Castro introduced the reforms to try to rescue the

foundering Cuban economy by making deep cuts in the number of workers

dependent on the state for their livelihood.



cb-jhd/sg/jm



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