QCOSTARICA – Ending retroactive charges of ten years or more by the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social (CCSS) for independent workers and companies is a measure supported by the government of Rodrigo Chaves.
To this end, President Chaves called for a debate in the Legislative Assembly on a reform to the law of independent workers, with the objective that arrears in employer-employee contributions expire after four years.
The proposal would also give legal certainty to companies regarding the prescription of employer-employee contributions.
In this way, the Caja would be unable to pursue delinquent workers and companies with arrears in social security after four years have elapsed.
The idea of the government is to increase the levels of formal work and at the same time, guarantee the precept of universal health for all Costa Ricans.
“The bill is being called for debate in order to accelerate a solution to the worrying situation of the relationship of independent workers with the Caja, in which the intention is to eliminate retroactive charges of ten or more years, many of them ruinous, and to the detriment of the possibility of incorporating more than 50% of informal independent workers into social security. The universalization of social security is a constitutional principle and the current situation does not allow it,” said Natalia Díaz, Minister of the Presidency.
Until the end of July, the debate agenda of the Congress is established by the Executive Branch, while from August, it will be the legislators themselves who establish what they will discuss.
The initiative has the commitment of different fractions to bring the proposal to the first vote.
Once this stage has been completed, the proposal must be taken back for the approval of a substitute text, promoted by legislators Daniela Rojas Salas of the Christian Social Unity Party (PUSC) and Jorge Dengo of the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP), in coordination with the Ministry of The presidency.
“This project seeks to put limits on the prescription in the collection of social charges by the Fund. The plan is well advanced and is to be voted on in the first debate (…) The proposal contains some legal and constitutional elements that must be corrected through a substitute text, in order to once and for all provide legal certainty in terms of prescription of social charges for companies and independent workers,” said Dengo.
Other reforms
In the last days of the extraordinary sessions, the government of Rodrigo Chaves presented several initiatives for debate in the legislature, in addition to the Caja prescription of worker-employer quotas, the following proposals:
- Authorization to the government to make direct payments to small rice farmers
- Efficient Management of State Liquidity and the Ecosystem Services Regulatory Law
- Law against the Facilitation of Crime from Detention Centers
