After Consideration, Government Will Not Take Sunday Away

Despite initial plans to convert Sunday into a competitive workday, President Martinelli announced that it will remain a day of rest.

“We have heard the views of different sectors, churches and especially of the workers and respect their points of view,” Martinelli said. “So, I am announcing that we will maintain the right of all workers to spend time with their families on this day, or if working, to receive their due payment.”

The government’s labor code proposal, which sought to expand Panama’s competitiveness in the global market by eliminating Sunday, was harshly criticized by labor unions.  Panama’s new archbishop, Jose Domingo Ulloa, whose middle name is Sunday, also opposed the government’s initiative to take Sunday away.

“The dignity of man and woman is at stake in avoiding falling victim to economic interests,” Ulloa said this past Sunday at a Eucharist congress. “Throughout history it has been necessary to alternate between work and rest, and today it becomes more urgent when science and technology have tremendously expanded the power which man exercises through his work.”

A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, 1884-1886, Georges Seurat