Cuba's telecoms company to allow self-employed workers

Cuba's telecoms company to allow self-employed workers
(Globalpost/GlobalPost)

Cuba will allow self-employed workers at the country's telecoms
monopoly, Etecsa, in the latest in a series of economic reforms to
streamline a bloated government bureaucracy.

Under the new system, which was announced Monday on the etecsa.cu
website, private sector "communications agents" will be allowed to
assist with local, regional and international phone calls.

They also will be allowed to sell prepaid phone cards and Internet
cards, or reload used ones, and also will be able to take telephone bill
payments.

The agents, who will work on a commission paid by Etecsa, will be
required to obtain licenses and pay taxes on their earnings.

These new private employees will add to the rapidly growing ranks of
self-employed workers in Cuba since economic reforms have begun to be
put in place.

A growing number of Cubans, no longer workers of the state, earn their
living as restaurant owners or self-employed barbers, electricians,
mechanics and other occupations.

All told, there are about 200 sanctioned occupations in which Cubans are
allowed to work for themselves.

Government figures show that more than 436,000 Cubans are now
self-employed since the government began expanding the ranks of the
private sector in 2010.

President Raul Castro introduced the reforms to try to rescue the
foundering Cuban economy by making deep cuts in the number of workers
dependent on the state for their livelihood.

cb-jhd/sg/jm

Source: "Cuba's telecoms company to allow self-employed workers |
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