Not-So-Cheap Labor, Part 2

     To complete the story of our domestic labor adventure:

     After we fired our muchacha, and surveying the damage, some of which could not be repaired or replaced, we decided to rest up a bit and recover from the last few months.  We inquired again among friends in Potrerillos for names of likely people, and came up eventually with three.  

     When we did decide to get back into employment market, we first turned to someone who had been recommended highly by gringo friends of ours.  The woman had not worked for them, but they knew her and her husband.  We wanted to proceed cautiously, so we offered her a job at $1/hr for 8 hours every other week.  She felt she couldn’t do that because of a child in school, so then we agreed on the same wage, only 5 hours/week every week.  She was supposed to start the following week.

     She showed up on Tuesday with her husband who drove her here because she didn’t know the way.  Right at the door, we were confronted with what is too often a typical Panamanian ploy: what we had agreed on was going to be unilaterally changed–at their choice.  Now it seemed she wanted to work a full 8 hours because they’d forgotten that their older child could babysit the younger one.

     Let me warn you right now that if suddenly you get the rules changed on you, watch out–it just about never works out.  My advice is to say “NO!” immediately.  We haven’t had this happen often but every single time it’s been a mistake to be flexible.  And I am dissatisfied with what I’ve written because it’s nowhere near emphatic enough.  MISTAKE!  WARNING!!

     Alert, we agreed but insisted on going back to the every other week arrangement, which she and her husband seemed happy to accept.

     Within an hour, we knew we had problems.  She seemed willing enough and a good enough worker, but it was immediately clear that she wasn’t all that intelligent.  It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to clean a house but it does take a certain level of intelligence to be organized, to understand what’s wanted, and to be able to learn. I doubt that she had every used an automatic washer before; fine, not a problem, we would teach her.  I marked out the settings to be used on the dial, in Spanish, explained carefully and demonstrated.  Same with the drier. It was very obvious that she found this daunting, unusual in our experience.

     Unfortunately, the day proceeded along the same lines.  She’d done a barely adequate job of cleaning.  I had to remind her to do one of the bathrooms–she’d forgotten.  After her husband picked her up, we just sighed and said, we’ll train her.  We weren’t thrilled but felt we owed it to our friends to keep on working with her.

     Two weeks later when she arrived, her attitude was, to put it mildly, sullen.  She asked me about the drier at one point.  I explained again, but before I had finished, she gave a dismissive wave of her hand and walked away from me, incredibly rude in this very polite society.  It was also clear that she wasn’t doing a good job in the house.

     The day thankfully ended, and we discovered the cause of her discontent.  She was unhappy with her wages.  She complained that the house was bigger than expected.  When I explained that the size didn’t matter because she was only expected to work 8 hours and only complete a basic amount within that 8 hours, hardly taxing her, she didn’t seem to understand.  Then she said that G__, someone who was cleaning a friend’s house, was getting $10/day.  Ah, so that was it.  We know G__ and her situation.  I explained that G__ had been working for our friend for over 10 years, that she had not started off at that wage, and that we always started people out at $1/hr which, I reminded her, was very good for Potrerillos (it’s excellent, as a matter of fact).  Oh.  Well, she was still unhappy, so with satisfaction that I hope I concealed well, I regretfully informed her that we were not going to pay her $10/day, paid her what we had agreed on, and wished her well.  I couldn’t believe that we had lucked out so easily.

     It was raining out.  We asked her if her husband was going to pick her up.  No.  Well, did she have an umbrella.  No, she didn’t own one.  (WHAT????  A Panamanian who didn’t own an umbrella?)  Mary then took her to the bus stop by the carretera but she didn’t want to wait there because, as she explained to Mary, there were people waiting there (Don’t even ask.  I have no idea why).  So Mary dropped her off at her request just a short distance up the carretera where she had a chance to get thoroughly soaked while waiting for the bus.

      Wondering if there were some particular Panamanian saint to whom we should light a candle in thanks for our deliverance, we heaved a sigh of relief, not even minding the still-dirty house she’d left behind.    

     Darío had mentioned to me that he knew someone who would be interested, so the next time he showed up I told him what had happened (just that it hadn’t worked out).  To my joy, I found out he had been talking about one of his daughters, Luz. Work ethics tend to be passed on in families around here, and I knew that we would probably be very happy with one of his family.

     This part of the story, the happy one, doesn’t take much telling.  Luz is bright and hard-working.  Finally, her third time here, she started to relax as we both assured her that she was working too hard, that this was a house of jubiladas, and that there wasn’t a need to push around here.  Yes, she was working frantically, doing an incredible job, and wouldn’t even take lunch the first two times, distressing us no end.  Having heard Darío’s stories (you’ll see), we knew why she was doing it and therefore worked hard to reassure her.   

     But it’s clear that she’s a good worker, who is ecstatic at the chance to use a washing machine and a drier no less, and all in all her father’s daughter.  I’m confident that she’ll work out well.  

     I’ve already written a great deal about our troubles with outdoor help, in the yard.  Our trouble wound up being hundreds of dollars worth of damage to weed eaters, doubling and possibly tripling, in reality, what we paid in wages.  Now I want to tell you a carefully edited story, in order to obscure the participants, about what happened to neighbors of ours.  I’ve already mentioned it; I just want to finish up.

     They had had a young man working full time for them as a jardinero for 4 years, I think it was.  He was good, although nowhere near so good as he had them believing.  I know plants; I had caught him in some outright nonsense.  But if they were happy with him, and they seemed to be–hey, not my dollar.

     He got quite a few privileges, too–coffee when he arrived in the morning, a lunch like he could only dream of.  They also helped him buy property and helped him with a savings account for his son.  Typical Americans, trying to give a hand up to someone.  Hearts of gold.  Truly lousy judgement.

     Because last year he started giving them trouble.  I won’t give details but he manipulated them into firing him–which meant that under Panamanian labor law, they were liable for $3,000 in severance pay.  They went to the Ministry of Labor and found a sympathetic funcionario (the age of miracles is not past) who agreed to help them fill out forms and file a counter complaint or whatever it’s called here.

     Long story greatly shortened: it all worked out luckily for them, because the former worker wound up leaving the country and they were able to settle with him for $400.  However, they had to turn over the money in the savings account–over $1000–because it was in his name, and, of course, their loans to him are toast.  I’m guessing that they still are out a few thousand dollars.

     There is no such thing as cheap labor here.  People come here, dazzled by the prospect of hiring full-time  domestic help or gardeners, something they could never afford in the US.   All think they can get, basically, something for nothing.  

     Chances are excellent that all these people are going to run into trouble in one fashion or another.  Theresa in Mérida, Mexico, wrote in a Comment about how maids working for a friend were stealing–read the Comment to the previous post.  We have a friend who is suddenly missing a $700 stereo system stored in the garage.  And because the Panamanians know the labor law inside and out, chances are really good that they’re going to manipulate you into a situation where suddenly that cheap labor isn’t so cheap anymore.

     I’m not saying, don’t hire.  But look into the labor law really carefully especially if you’re thinking of taking someone on full time.  Consult with a lawyer who knows the law as to the best way to do it.  Remember that even if you don’t have a formal contract with a worker, by Panamanian law, a contract still exists and you are liable under that law for such things as severance pay and possibly more, depending on the circumstances.

     TANNSTAAFL–there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.

     Next up: Darío’s stories.