“Private workers are people who have not studied and are willing to work for minimum wages,” were the words of Ellen Sancho Barrantes, a professor at the Universidad Nacional (UNA) – National University – with 36 years as an educator and current professor at the UNA School of Agricultural Sciences.
The professor made the statement on Tuesday during an organized protest march at the UNA to support to prevent the Government from influencing how the ¢512 billion from the Fondo Especial para la Educación Superior (FEES) – Special Fund for Higher Education – should be used.
The professor made the statement to Multimedios journalist Esteban Vargas when asked why she was participating in the protest.
Professor Sancho referred to an article by La Nación, according to which the average monthly salary of the public sector is just over ¢1 million, while that of the private sector is ¢371,000.
Por eso es que el país está polarizado… Cuando personal del sector público zanja estas diferencias y olvida que el sector privado es quien emplea a una mayoría, entre otras cosas; no se sabe qué pensar pic.twitter.com/34EzDktNl5
— Esteban Vargas (@evargassa) October 22, 2019
The article pointed out that, in the last two years, the average remuneration of public workers grew by 15.5%, while that of private workers fell by 0.8%, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics and Census ( INEC).
The professor said that “potatoes are being compared with chayotes. Public workers are compared with private workers in conditions that are totally different.”
“Private workers are people who have not studied and are willing to work for minimum wages,” she said.
