Our new Employee

Since Kees is leaving we had to find someone to replace him Impossible of course, Kees is irreplaceable, where do you find someone like him? However, we did find someone who could take over part of Kees’s tasks: Justino M.P. We have employed him as of 1 May so that he could work together with Kees and learn how we want to get things done.

Justino is 22 years old and lives in Palmilla, about 500 m down the road from our farm (in the direction of Malena, near the bridge) . Justino worked with us for about three weeks last year, he is the young man helping to construct the shower in October 2007. So, we already know him and that is why we asked him: he is a hard worker and uses his brains as well as his hands. Some time ago he worked in construction in Panama city and recently he worked on a large cattle ranch milking the cows.

Justino is married and his wife has just given birth to their second child: a son. The first child, a daughter, is named Jocelyn. Unfortunately she has a slight heart murmur and is regularly checked by a medical doctor. So far there is no need to intervene, but Justino and his wife are of, course, always concerned about Jocelyn.

Since 5 May we have planted nearly 200 trees and Justino has also helped us to weed around the trees we planted last year and from existing paths. Unfortunately, the weeds and grass grow just as fast as the trees. He has also helped us to construct paths and helped the builder finish the workshop. He also helped us constructing the work bench in the work shop. The latter was no easy job, because the thing you need most when constructing a work bench is…a work bench.
An added complication is that all wood comes straight from the saw mill and is therefore green, rough and usually anything but straight. So there was quite a bit of sawing, planning and sanding to be done before we could actually get down to the business of constructing the work bench.

An employee also means an introduction to a new aspect of Panama: the bureaucracy associated with registering your employee with the ministry of labour and Social Security. And we must say, it was not too bad. During the first visit we received a list of all the documents we needed to bring and clear instructions how to complete them. And so we did. However, after completing all the forms and placing my signature no less than 11 times we found out that they forgot to tell us one thing: some cards had to be completed with a typewriter. Yes, you read this correctly: a typewriter. Those cards are stored in an ancient type of filing system with cardboard cards. So where does one find a typewriter? Well, in the only other places that still use the same antique filing system: Medical doctors and lawyers. Luckily a friend of ours knows someone who works as a secretary at a medical practice and has access to a real typewriter.

Now that Justino has been registered with Social Services, we have to complete a form every month, hand that in and come back three weeks later to pay the contributions. Interestingly, they are doing their best to get this digitalized. So when we handed in the forms, we got a CD-ROM with some files to use with well known software to complete these monthly forms.

The contract between employer and employee is also not just that, the ministry of labour also has to receive a copy. We do not know why, but they have to have a copy, which is checked to see if we comply with the law and then endorsed with a stamp. This process was very quick, because we had first obtained a model contract and did not stray too far from the model. Furthermore, Justino earns more than the legally allowed absolute minimum (good workers are expensive) and his niece was the person who had to stamp the contract. Her reactions was : What a high salary, followed by the resounding ‘plonk’ of a stamp hitting a document.