Quito, March 18 (EFE) .- The main teachers’ unions in Ecuador demanded this Friday that President Guillermo Lasso abide by the increase in their salaries approved this week by the National Assembly (Parliament), which benefits some 170,000 teachers.
For the second consecutive day there was a mobilization of teachers called by the National Union of Educators (UNE) in the old town of Quito, marred by the intense rain that fell in the Ecuadorian capital moments before the appointment for this concentration.
However, a small group of demonstrators advanced through the streets with the intention of reaching the Carondelet Palace, seat of the executive power, which was prevented by the profuse anti-riot defenses arranged by the security forces.
The mobilizations will continue in the coming weeks with another series of calls that continue despite the announcement made on Thursday by the Presidency that promised to raise teachers’ salaries.
In a statement, the Presidency of Ecuador reported that it is evaluating the law sent by the Legislature and specified that the increase in public spending would amount to 500 million dollars.
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This was taken as a pulse won once morest the Government by the union leaders, since Lasso had stated on Tuesday that this regulation would increase the fiscal deficit by assuming a disbursement of 4,000 million dollars from the public coffers.
“The lies fall under their own weight. (…) The increase is barely 0.6% of the gross domestic product (GDP), that is, 630 million dollars,” the UNE said in a release.
The Executive, for its part, stated that “teachers’ salaries may be reviewed within the framework of economic reactivation” and promised to work for a progressive, responsible wage increase “that lasts over time.”
However, the teachers’ union clarified that for them it is not a salary increase but a “salary equalization” and pointed out that the State has the resources to finance it, contrary to what was stated by the Executive, which claims to have a deficit for this year of 2,500 million dollars.
The increase in teachers’ salaries was approved by the National Assembly in a series of reforms of the Organic Law of Intercultural Education (LOEI) where a new salary scale was formulated to go from salaries that ranged from 527 to 1,676 dollars per month to salaries that they range from 817 to 2,034 dollars a month.
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To finance this increased state spending, the legislature proposed that the funds come from revenues from oil exports, taking advantage of high international crude oil prices, and from the tax reform approved by the Lasso government at the end of last year.
(c) EFE Agency