Jessica Martínez Santos, president of Servidores Públicos Unidos de Puerto Rico (SPUPR), Council 95 AFSCME, demanded that the Office of Administration, Transformation, and Human Resources (OATRH) and the Fiscal Supervision Board (JSF) immediately initiate a dialogue with exclusive representatives of public employees to discuss the impact of the new regulation governing salary adjustments in the public sector. The union learned about the new regulation, which took effect on Monday, through reports in El Nuevo Día, rather than through direct consultation.
Martínez Santos called this an 'insult' and did not rule out taking legal action to protect the acquired rights of their members and collective agreements. The new regulation, a 70-page guide, provides that OATRH will review the classification and compensation plan every three to five years, and some job classifications may be eligible for advancement within the 25 salary scales, subject to market conditions.
Martínez Santos criticized the government's attitude towards public workers, stating that everything related to salary and working conditions is subject to collective bargaining, as established by Law 45 of 1998.