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Monday, July 30, 2007

RTURO FERMANDOIS

ARTURO FERMANDOIS
Promover la Negociación por Ramas de Manera Fáctica Es Inconstitucional

     
   
     

. ¿QUE DUDA CABE?

El abogado constitucionalista, que asesoró a la Alianza por Chile en 2006, en el requerimiento que objetó el nuevo concepto de empresa que buscaban imponer parlamentarios socialistas en la ley de subcontratación, advierte que si los trabajadores de labores externalizadas de Codelco negocian "con quien no es su empresa, sino la dueña de la obra o faena, están yendo más allá de lo que la Carta Fundamental tolera", al tiempo que analiza las transgresiones en las que podrían incurrir parlamentarios y ministros de Estado.

—¿Cómo ve la polémica en torno a Codelco y los trabajadores subcontratados, a nueve meses de la publicación de la ley que regula el trabajo en régimen de subcontratación y el funcionamiento de las empresas de servicios transitorios?
—Lo primero que hay que hacer, es aclarar que el objetivo de la ley de subcontratación es facilitar que los trabajadores subcontratados sean pagados en todas sus prestaciones laborales, por quien los contrató, o bien por el dueño de la obra o faena en la cual ese dueño está trabajando. Y que la ley no se creó para introducir negociaciones colectivas por ramas de actividad o para facilitar que los trabajadores subcontratados negocien colectivamente con el dueño de la obra de faena. Eso es otro escenario y otra realidad que no ha sido abordada por la ley de subcontratación y que difícilmente lo podría hacer, por el marco constitucional vigente.
De manera que, lo primero que llama la atención es que se convide a la ley de subcontratación, para el conflicto de Codelco. Lo único que podría hacer oportuna la aplicación de la ley de subcontratación, es la falta de pago, la omisión en las prestaciones laborales de los trabajadores subcontratados, en cuyo caso, efectivamente se podría llegar hasta el dueño de la obra o faena que es Codelco. Pero según mis antecedentes lo que ocurre no es eso, sino que trabajadores subcontratados buscan mejorar sus condiciones de remuneraciones en una especie de negociación colectiva.
Se está acusando al ministro del Trabajo de imponer por la vía de los hechos, la negociación interempresas o por rama de actividad que no contempla la ley.
—Es claro que algunos sectores desde hace mucho tiempo aspiran a que exista negociación por rama de actividad. La Constitución, en el artículo 19, número 16, inciso quinto, sólo contempla la negociación con la empresa en que laboran los trabajadores. Este es un eje central de la organización laboral y económica chilena. Y si alguien desea modificar este eje, puesto que se mira con nostalgia a las antiguas negociaciones por ramas, entonces lo procedente es plantear el debate de una reforma constitucional, la cual va a requerir en este caso de dos tercios de los diputados y senadores en ejercicio para ser aprobada.
Fácticamente, promover una negociación por rama, disfrazada de ley de subcontratación, es completamente inconstitucional y no es ético.
—¿Por qué?

—Porque se distorsionan los fines de la ley de subcontratación; se le desprestigia y probablemente se le perjudica para los objetivos lícitos y nobles para los que fue aprobada, que son otorgar mayor cobertura a las prestaciones naturales de un trabajador.
—¿Cree que en esta negociación de Codelco confluyen esos elementos?

—No tengo todos los antecedentes para emitir juicios de lo que ocurre con Codelco. Lo que aparece de público conocimiento, que cualquier ciudadano puede apreciar, es que los trabajadores subcontratados han promovido el ejercicio del derecho de petición, una negociación con quien no es su empleador y eso, como he explicado, no tiene sustento legal.
—Una cosa es que los trabajadores lo pidan y otra es que autoridades avalen esa situación.
—Si autoridades avalan las peticiones concretas de una de las partes envueltas en un conflicto laboral, hay que distinguir.
—¿Entre qué situaciones?
Si estas autoridades son parlamentarios, el artículo 60 de la Constitución contiene una norma muy terminante y draconiana, que es la causal de cesación en el cargo.
Distinto es que un parlamentario se interese por un problema, a que se alinee con la posición de uno de los dos sectores, supongamos el de los trabajadores, e influya ante las autoridades, eso tiene una sanción en la Constitución.
—¿Y si las autoridades son administrativas?
—Si son ministros, subsecretarios, no existe una causal precisa, como la que existe para los parlamentarios. Pero evidentemente tienen responsabilidades, como todos, que los obligan a cumplir la ley, no la pueden infringir y ahí se puede iniciar un proceso cuando un ministro no la cumple.
—¿La acusación constitucional?
—Efectivamente.
—Al ministro del Trabajo, Osvaldo Andrade, se le acusa de impulsar este conflicto y la senadora Matthei (UDI), y el diputado Nicolás Monckeberg (RN), afirman que está al borde de la ley y que impulsó una negociación interempresas que no existe. De ser efectivo, ¿eso es causal de una acusación constitucional?
—No quiero pronunciarme en el caso específico, hay que tener todos los antecedentes. Pero, lo que dice el artículo 52 de la Constitución es que se puede acusar a un ministro cuando infringe la Constitución o las leyes, o las deja sin ejecución. Es una causal genérica que todos entendemos debe ser una infracción significativa, visible de la ley.
—¿Por qué se considera que lo que pasa en Codelco es una negociación interempresas?
—Lo que puedo decir como experto constitucional, es que la Constitución asegura como derecho a los trabajadores el negociar con su empresa. El fallo del Tribunal Constitucional del 2006, en que objetó el artículo 183 Ter del Código del Trabajo que venía en el proyecto de ley de subcontratación, tuvo precisamente el mérito de mantener vigentes las identidades legales de las distintas empresas. Entonces, si los trabajadores subcontratistas de Codelco pretenden negociar con quien no es su empresa, sino la empresa dueña de la obra o faena, están yendo más allá de lo que la Constitución tolera para efectos de negociaciones colectivas.
Por excepción, los trabajadores subcontratistas pueden demandar a Codelco para el caso de un ilícito consistente en su propio empleador no les pague las remuneraciones, las cotizaciones previsionales, etc. Pero si están dirigiéndose en el marco de una negociación colectiva, entonces estamos hablando aquí de una negociación colectiva que no está tolerada por la Constitución.
—Es decir, ¿de alguna manera se está torciendo el espíritu de la ley de subcontratación?
—Efectivamente, si lo que se pretende es invocar la ley de subcontratación para que trabajadores subcontratados, que están al día en las prestaciones laborales de sus contratos, mejoren esas prestaciones laborales, es una distorsión de la A a la Z, tanto de la ley, como de la Constitución.
—Muchos parlamentarios centran sus críticas en que personas que cumplen igual función, una contratada por Codelco y otra subcontratada, ganan distinto.
—Eso es inherente a la realidad económica en virtud de la cual la subcontratación es un elemento de eficiencia en el mundo empresarial. Esa es la razón por la cual precisamente la subcontratación ha sido un vehículo que ha promovido la eficiencia en los distintos países, porque suele ocurrir que estos trabajadores subcontratados son tan eficientes como aquellos que están contratados directamente, por una menor remuneración, y eso es un elemento central del desarrollo económico. Es una realidad que la ley nunca se ha propuesto impedir, porque sería un verdadero suicidio para el desarrollo chileno.
—El Ministerio del Trabajo está fiscalizando el cumplimiento de la ley de subcontratación.
—El ministerio del Trabajo tiene todas las atribuciones para fiscalizar la ley, pero jamás podría llegar a objetar el que distintas personas tengan distintas remuneraciones. Eso es parte de la vida, de la diversidad de la realidad económica.
—¿Qué precedente se puede sentar, si Codelco llega a un acuerdo bajo la presión y una interpretación errónea de la ley de subcontratación?
—Sería nocivo, irresponsable. Por el momento no tengo ese temor dado la prudencia del presidente ejecutivo de Codelco y la responsabilidad que aún observo en las esferas más altas del gobierno.
—¿Específicamente en qué esfera? Porque al parecer hay distintas visiones?
El ministro de Hacienda.

 

Saludos
Rodrigo González Fernández
Renato Sánchez 3586 of. 10
Telefono: 2084334- 5839786
santiago-Chile
www.consultajuridicachile.blogspot.com
www.lobbyingchile.blogspot.com
www.biocombustibles.blogspot.com

FOM LEGAL BLOG WATCH


BlawgWorld 2007: I Still Don't Get It

When TechnoLawyer Publisher Neil J. Squillante and Editor Sara Skiff released the first edition of their BlawgWorld  e-book in November 2005, I wrote at my LawSites blog that it was a worthwhile experiment, but one that should be shelved. I explained:

"[H]aving now seen the final product, it is clear that the concept simply did not work as a book -- blog postings frozen in rigid pdf pages seemed drained of whatever vitality they once might have had."

I also expressed discomfort at the way it was promoted, seemingly making the bloggers who contributed essays pawns in expanding TechnoLawyer's membership. Thus, with the release today of the second edition of this e-book, BlawgWorld 2007, I was not surprised to receive an e-mail from Squillante pointing out changes in this new edition. "I agree with you that the first edition had flaws," he wrote, "but rather than shelve it, we addressed the flaws."

Well, in my opinion, they did and they didn't. Let's start with the good. Squillante and Skiff deserve high praise for the design and format of BlawgWorld 2007. The book employs a navigation system that takes full advantage of the features of PDF. The concept is "three clicks from anywhere to anywhere." That holds true, enabling the reader to find and get to articles quickly and intuitively. In addition to intuitive navigation, the book's pages are nicely designed. Blog essays include information about the blog and the blogger and even a thumbnail of its main page. Essays are published with all links intact so that the reader can jump from book to web and back.

To some extent, this design addresses my concern about rigid PDF pages draining blog posts of their vitality. But the premise of this book (as Squillante explains in the video here)  is that is serves as the best way for lawyers to discover legal blogs and choose the ones they might regularly read. I still don't see how it does that. Myself, I am able to evaluate a blog only by reading several postings over a period of time. To take one self-selected post and add it to a compendium of posts from other bloggers seems to serve no practical purpose other than to stroke the egos of the bloggers who are included.

Then there is still that discomfort aspect. This time, BlawgWorld is being promoted as two books in one. The second book -- which is not a separate book at all -- is the TechnoLawyer Problem/Solution Guide. This is described as "the product guide reinvented" and a "revolutionary new sponsored resource." The key word here is sponsored. Although positioned as a collection of questions and answers about common technology and management problems, it is really a collection of advertisements. The answers are not objective, they are provided by vendors to promote their own products and services. Here, for example, is a question: "Does a case management solution exist specifically for personal injury practices?" The answer, "Look no further than Needles." Let's call this what it is -- a huge advertising directory.

Squillante says that this e-book costs much more than the first one to produce, so he had to sell advertising. Rather than "turn the eBook into a magazine with big garish ads interspersed with the blawg essays," he chose this approach, which he says was inspired by the yellow pages. He explains: "Participating legal vendors were required to ask a question (Problem) free of superlatives that a law firm might actually ask, and then answer that question (Solution) using 250-300 words."

With 45,000 downloads, the popularity of the first BlawgWorld exceeded all expectations. Squillante expects to see the number of downloads for this second BlawgWorld reach at least 50,000. So even though I don't get it, plenty of people apparently do. Clearly, this second edition is an improvement over the first in many respects. If some readers find it useful in learning about and selecting blogs, then BlawgWorld has achieved its purpose.

Posted by Robert J. Ambrogi on July 30, 2007 at 12:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Is SJC Nominee in Trouble?

That is the question media writer Dan Kennedy asks at his blog Media Nation about Margot Botsford, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick's nominee for a seat on the state's highest court, the Supreme Judicial Court. I, for one, don't think so. Botsford, currently a judge on the state's Superior Court, is highly regarded among lawyers in Massachusetts and has an impressive record of achievements to support her.

The question arises because, one day after Gov. Patrick nominated Botsford, the Boston Herald reported that her husband, lawyer S. Stephen Rosenfeld, last year donated three times the legal limit to Patrick's campaign fund. Rosenfeld is also well known within the state's legal community and was chief of staff and legal counsel to former Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis. This news led blogger Kennedy to comment:

"Botsford is well-qualified and progressive, but this has the aroma of a quid pro quo. You could argue that she's not responsible for her husband's political donations, but come on. As a judge, she can't make political donations anyway. (Or at least she shouldn't.) And why didn't someone at the Patrick campaign flag the excess donations and return them?"

From the state's legal community, support for Botsford's nomination is strong. Massachusetts Bar Association President Mark D. Mason issued a statement in which he said:

"Botsford's keen intellect and extraordinary abilities as a jurist enhance the outstanding reputation of our state's highest court. She is highly regarded and respected amongst jurists and attorneys throughout the commonwealth."

The president of the Boston Bar Association, Jack Cinquegrana, had like praise:

"[Botsford] is a true scholar of the law and a noble public servant who is universally admired for her brilliance, her extraordinary work ethic, and her commitment to justice."

My prediction is that her nomination will -- and should -- sail through.

Posted by Robert J. Ambrogi on July 30, 2007 at 01:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Praise for ABA Journal Web Site Relaunch

The headline that best describes the ABA Journal's unveiling last week of its new Web site may be this one from Mark Obbie: A Sleeping Giant Stirs. I first noted the head-to-toe redesign of the site a week ago on my LawSites blog, but now that I am back from the Maine woods, I have had a chance to look more closely at the site and at other bloggers' comments. Opinions appear to be unanimously enthusiastic. Overnight, the ABA Journal's Web site went from Edsel to Ferrari.

The overhaul was spearheaded by two former colleagues of mine at ALM, Ed Adams, the magazine's new editor and publisher, and Molly McDonough, the magazine's assistant managing editor/online. My LawSites post describes the site's major features, which include regularly updated legal news stories drawn from multiple sources online, a directory of more than 1,000 law-related blogs, articles from the magazine, RSS feeds and more. But here I wanted to collect some of what others are saying about the new site. Here is a sampling of what I found:

  • Blawg's Blog: "[A]t first glimpse, it looks to me like the ABA has done a very nice job in putting together its new site. It has created another law portal, however, which makes this move pretty interesting. My initial reaction is that the ABA has moved into direct competition with Law.com and FindLaw (and maybe a Lexis web property like Lawyers.com). It also obviously offers some of the same features and functionality as Blawg.com and Justia, to name a couple more."
  • Dennis Kennedy: "I like the direction that the ABA Journal is going with the website and the print publication. In fact, I like it so much that I've recently agreed to take over the legal technology column for the publication starting this fall."
  • Ernie the Attorney: "Very impressive new look! Also note that the Journal is now listing legal blogs (which they term 'blawgs'), including this one."
  • InhouseBlog: "This is sure to be a powerful new tool for in-house counsel - check it out and add it to your blog reader."
  • LawBeat: "Law.com, watch your back. The ABA Journal today launched a new Web site that kicks Law.com's butt."
  • Mediator blah... blah...: "Best of all is The Blawg Directory which indexes more than 1,000 law blogs. The directory tells you about the author, what they cover, and includes excerpts from the 10 latest posts."
  • MyShingle: "[T]he ABA has finally provided a really useful product with the newly launched, online ABA Journal. The site makes ABA Journal articles and legal news available, and also contains one of the best topical blawg directories that I've ever seen."
  • New York Personal Injury Law Blog: "The American Bar Association has moved into the news and blog arena in a big way, as evidenced by their newly redone website. A quick view shows terrific free news feeds as well as a great new compendium of blawgs. They have obviously done their homework."

If the best headline about the new site was Mark Obbie's, quoted above, the most succinct evaluation of the overhaul may be this from Denise Howell at Bag and Baggage: "It's not the old site, which was, let's face it, as painful as a nitrous-free molar extraction."

Posted by Robert J. Ambrogi on July 30, 2007 at 12:45 PM | Perma

Saludos
Rodrigo González Fernández
Renato Sánchez 3586 of. 10
Telefono: 2084334- 5839786
santiago-Chile
www.consultajuridicachile.blogspot.com
www.lobbyingchile.blogspot.com
www.biocombustibles.blogspot.com

'China: To blog to dream'

'China: To blog to dream'
by John Kennedy

Two American bloggers based in southern China's Guangzhou city are gearing up for a year's worth of blogging trips which will take them through all twenty-two provinces in mainland China and see them raising funds for charities, offering scholarships for Chinese students to go study in the West as well as raising funds to cover medical costs for people struggling with cancer back in the heavily-industrialized Pearl River Delta, where cancer rates run high.

Lonnie B. Hodge, the elder of the two, US army veteran, past recipient of the National Endowment of the Arts and resident of Asia for nearly two decades, has played a very active role in China's English-language blogging community since he started OneManBandwidth in 2004, supporting not just top blogger and photo contests, but also charity initiatives being played out across the country, all on top of maintaining a business column and drawing on life experiences (and a PhD) in decoding life as a teacher and business consultant in today's China on everything from cancer to censorship to corruption on campuses.

Cancer has been a central topic on OneManBandwidth for the past year as Hodge has followed closely the lives of what he is calling The League of Extraordinary Chinese Women, linked by their shared suffering of breast cancer; where once there five, only one is still living today. As those around him continue to pass away, Hodge himself does not have long left to go.

And thus the inspiration for what Hodge and his Macau University of Science and Technology teaching colleague David DeGeest are calling The Dreamblogue: Traveling China for Charity and Understanding.

The first trip will take the pair to Tibet on August 15 and more information will be released shortly. One recent post looks at the Asia Library Project initiative mentioned in the short video, taken in Guangzhou this past week, below:



Hodge and DeGeest's first step toward making people's dreams come true has been  to invite readers to share them on The Dreamblogue:

Dreamblogue readers and corporate sponsors are already helping fulfill some of the dreams posted here. For how you can help us visit our help page and continue to follow our adventures in China. All ad revenue will from this site benefits Chinese and American individuals with dreams deferred by health, or social circumstances.

And several have already come in:

tdgardens's dream:
That every child have a book to hug, hold, and carry them to a dream all their own.

hailvict's dream:
To become someone who makes a difference every day of their life.

mmhalim's dream:
travell to china i cannot imagine what is the great system that can organize all this people and in the same time they are be one of the great country in the world

Taitai's Dream:
My main dream right now is that the lumps found in my mother-in-law's lung are benign. That would be lovely, thank you.

kevin's dream:
I hope the project of "Blog of dreams" will be successful.

Roxi Copland's Dream:
touring worldwide as a vocalist and pianist

You may view the latest post at
http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2007/07/29/china-to-blog-to-dream/

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Best regards,
The Global Voices Team
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Saludos
Rodrigo González Fernández
Renato Sánchez 3586 of. 10
Telefono: 2084334- 5839786
santiago-Chile
www.consultajuridicachile.blogspot.com
www.lobbyingchile.blogspot.com
www.biocombustibles.blogspot.com