Every month, the members of the economic department of Sancti Spíritus face “old-fashioned” payments, with pencil and paper
14ymedio, Mercedes García, Sancti Spíritus, 18 September 2024 — A dilapidated “Frankenstein-style” computer, obsolete programs and a terrible internet connection are just the tip of the iceberg of the problems suffered by the Music and Entertainment Marketing Company in Sancti Spíritus. The bancarización [banking reform] link in the province has been broken on the weakest side: the wages of workers, who rarely receive what the State owes them on time.
The problem is not only the technological obsolescence of the company, but also its “historic debts” – 658,000 pesos of overdue wages – an even more complex panorama since mandatory electronic payments were decreed last year. Despite the fact that the musicians had to have bank cards processed by the entity, it has not even met that basic requirement. For those who do have them, payment rarely arrives on time. The summary of one of the employees is pithy: “We are always uncertain of when we will get paid.”
According to the Sancti Spíritus newspaper, Escambray, the company hit rock bottom in 2022 and since then has not raised its head, “despite showing signs of economic recovery,” which the newspaper does not define. Today, however, it can barely support its administrative expenses and pay what the contracts stipulate.
Everything has been “stumbles and falls” in the Marketing Company’s attempts to execute the State’s guidelines
These factors meant that, rather than arriving late to bancarización, it never had a chance of taking the leap requested by the Central Bank of Cuba. Since then, everything has been “stumbles and falls” in its attempts to execute the State’s directions. To give an idea, the newspaper mentions the case of Antonio Sosa, a skilled musician from Sancti Spíritus, who has not been paid for three months because the company has not sent him a bank card.
Sosa doesn’t have too many illusions about the plastic: even when it reaches his hands, he’ll have to figure out “how to get the money.” The lines to extract cash from ATMs and the numerous difficulties for its availability in the banks do not augur well for the artist.
The Marketing Company has been “very late” when it comes to applying bancarización, says Escambray. It should have prepared for the delivery of bank cards six months ago. It did not do it, it says, because of its characteristic lack of “demand.”
Interviewed by the newspaper, the leaders of the entity defend themselves. They assure that 90% of musicians have cards, despite the fact that some made mistakes entering their data into the system. To that must be added the “Frankenstein” device, an old computer with unknown parts that is not up to par – they allege – or having the national software to process wages.
Every month, the members of the economic department face “old-fashioned” payments, with pencil and paper, which delays all the procedures. The new computer will not arrive soon, because they have to “develop an investment plan that gradually meets those and other needs.” It is the problem of belonging to the State’s “business system,” concludes the economist Caridad Ruiz. “We have to finance ourselves, and today we do not have the financial coverage to assume that expense,” she regrets.
“There’s no excuse for doing the payroll by hand. Here people work under the gun”
Others, such as the deputy director of the Marketing Company, do not agree with this system and ask for more resources. “There’s no excuse for doing the payrolls by hand. Here people work under the gun. Under these conditions it’s impossible to achieve anything else. Musicians and workers demand their right to be paid on time,” he says.
Gone are the days when subsidized musicians – paid a fixed salary as a gesture of “State protection” – received their salary in the first four days of the month. Guillermo González, director of the Parranda Típica Espirituana, complains of having lost count of “the last time he was paid on time.” First, the money arrived between the 10th and the 15th. Now it’s “when they pay it.”
His group hears one justification after another from the managers, such as the lack of staff in the economic departments of artistic companies. But there are never solutions.
Among the half dozen managers interviewed by Escambray, not a single one could promise an improvement. The problem – described in detail – has no end in sight, and the bosses only know how to repeat as a litany what their superiors in Havana tell them: “We have to continue working.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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