PERU: Quarter of a Million Victims of Structural

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>
>       Copyright 1996 InterPress Service, all rights reserved.
>          Worldwide distribution via the APC networks.
>                      *** 28-Jun-96 ***
>
>Title: LABOUR-PERU: Quarter of a Million Victims of Structural
>Adjustment
>By Abraham Lama
>
>LIMA, Jun 28 (IPS) - More than 250,000 workers in Peru, nearly
>half from the restructured public sector or privatised
>enterprises, and others from private companies gone bankrupt, have
>lost their jobs due to the structural adjustment measures
>implemented over the past five years.
>
>According to the Economy Ministry, 100,000 more could wind up
>on the streets this year as a result of the second stage of the
>reform of the State apparatus, announced earlier this month by
>President Alberto Fujimori.
>
>Unlike previous governments, which turned to public works or
>the creation of jobs in the public sector to deal with
>unemployment, one of the Fujimori administration's first measures
>was to shrink ministries and state enterprises, with 120,000
>public employees losing their jobs.
>
>Seven percent of Peru's economically active population of 8.64
>million people are unemployed, according to the Labour Ministry -
>a figure put at 800,000 by the magazine 'Analisis Laboral'.
>Meanwhile, some 220,000 people a year join the  labour market.
>
>Another magazine, 'Avance Economico', states that ''only one of
>seven workers has a decent job,'' while under-employment - workers
>earning less than the vital minimum salary calculated at 320
>dollars a month - amounts to 75.9 percent.
>
>Twelve of Peru's 23 million inhabitants live below the poverty
>line (per capita income of 32 dollars in the cities and 20 dollars
>in the countryside), and five million live in extreme poverty (23
>dollars per member in urban families and 15 dollars in the rural
>area).
>
>Reducing the size of the State was one of the measures
>recommended by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World
>Bank.
>
>The economic adjustment programme that Fujimori promised to
>implement in 1991 has been successful at reining in the 7,000
>percent runaway inflation inherited from his predecessor, and
>favoured economic growth in 1994 and 1995, although there are
>symptoms of recession today.
>
>Analysts say the 11.9 percent growth in the Gross Domestic
>Product (GDP) in 1994 and 6.9 percent in 1995 was ''growth without
>employment,'' because the industrial and export companies that had
>ridden out the crisis reconverted without expanding their
>personnel.
>
>''The model is not functioning well. The productive apparatus
>heated up, forcing the adoption of recessive measures this year,''
>says economist and opposition legislator Lajo Lazo. But where it
>has really failed, he adds, ''is in the generation of jobs, which
>has always been the critical point of our socioeconomic
>structure.''
>
>Lazo is calling for an urgent correction of the economic model,
>''especially of its priorities, to emphasise social development
>over a statistical increase in production.''
>
>Another lawmaker, Victor Joy Way, a former minister of
>industries and leader of the governing party in Congress, says it
>is not up to the State to generate jobs or take care of the public
>employees sacked in the process of reforming the ministries and
>privatising state companies.
>
>''That is a responsibility that must be assumed by the private
>business sector...It is the State's responsibility to create the
>appropriate conditions for business growth - which is what would
>help reduce unemployment,'' he adds.
>
>The government encourages public employees to resign by paying
>them 10 to 15 salaries - which goes a long way toward explaining
>the proliferation of taxis and street vendors.
>
>Those who lose their jobs in the privatisation of state
>enterprises also receive training to help them set up in business
>or join the labour market in better conditions.
>
>Some associations and cooperatives created by former public
>employees have been sub-contracted by their old bosses.
>
>The aim of the adjustment programme is to push the sacked
>personnel into realising their dreams of having their own small
>businesses.
>
>But the scenario encountered is ''tough and not very
>welcoming,'' states a report by Eduardo Farah, the president of
>the National Society of Industries, which indicates that the
>industrial workforce has failed to expand over the last six years,
>and actually shrunk 0.4 percent in 1995.
>
>According to official figures, there are 3.1 million companies
>in Peru, 82 percent of which are part of the informal economy.
>Former public employees who try to set up in business generally do
>so in the informal sector, where sweatshops with long hours and no
>social benefits abound.
>
>Roman Miu, the president of the Association of Small and Micro-
>enterprises, says his sector provides jobs to 75 percent of the
>economically active population, while producing nearly 40 percent
>of GDP.
>
>Forty percent of local companies - 1.2 million - are small
>businesses (annual sales of 40,000 to 750,000 dollars) or micro-
>enterprises (up to 40,000 dollars). (end/ips/trd-so/al/ff/sw/96)
>
>
>Origin: Montevideo/LABOUR-PERU/
>                              ----
>
>       [c] 1996, InterPress Third World News Agency (IPS)
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