[ad_1]
The Barranquilla businessman Christian Daes, director of Operations of the Tecnoglass group – made up of nine companies -, turned on social networks in recent days by stating in his Twitter account that he “sends egg”, referring to the initial percentage of 2 percent proposed by unions in the country as an increase for the minimum wage in 2021.
Daes spoke with EL TIEMPO about his vision of the role of entrepreneurs in the country.
(Read also: Christian Daes’ proposal to employers on minimum wage).
Why and how did the expression that caused such a stir come about?
I never thought it was going to have the significance that it had because I was going to work and listening to the news, when I found out about the proposal from my business colleagues for a 2 percent increase in the minimum wage. I want to clarify, for those who are not from the coast, that the expression ‘send egg’ is not rude, nor a lack of respect. On the contrary, it is an expression of ‘no, man, let’s be a little more generous, let’s look at so many people who need us’.
How did you receive the response to this statement?
The ‘sent egg’ became so famous that I received infinities of communications through my social networks, mail, WhatsApp and from all corners of Colombia and those from the right, from the left, those from the center and the from inside.
And what did the other businessmen tell you, did they think you overstepped with this statement?
All the industrialists, all the businessmen, all those who have a store and all those who have a warehouse told me ‘you’re right’, one thing is not to exaggerate the minimum wage and another very different is to be stingy with our people. I think the two percent proposal was stingy with our people. All businessmen should propose something more in line with our reality so that the President does not have to do the same thing as every year by decree. I think that if we businessmen propose something above 4 and a half, perhaps the President or the workers’ centrals could have agreed, and let’s go with the number. With the promise that every year we will continue to gain ground.
(Of your interest: Minimum wage increase is higher than that of congressmen: Government).
Do you trust the good decision that the Government will make in this matter?
I’m very calm because my ‘boss egg’ is going to have a happy ending. I have already heard President (Iván) Duque say that he was going to be fair and that he was not going to exaggerate the increase, but that he was not going to fall short either. And since I know that he is a just man, I know that the increase is going to be reasonable.
Have you already defined the percentage of the increase in Tecnoglass for 2021?
The agreement that I have with my people is that if there is an increase of 4 and a half, we increase the 5 and a half or 6. But what I want people to understand is that you do not have the obligation to raise the salary of a person who earns 14 million pesos … The obligation is with the minimum wage. If you have a company and there are many people who earn 10, 8, 7, 17, make it 2 percent or do nothing. But to people in need, to our brothers who are going through work and need, who have to work men and women to support the home, let us be more generous, that God rewards generosity. Also, a person who does not see the employee as an enemy, but as a friend, as someone who needs a hand, has a better chance of having a company than someone who sees him as a burden. Employees are not a burden, they are our reason for being, they are our people, they are the ones who make the company. Machines don’t have hearts, employees do. Our employees have families, children who go to school, who must be educated and raised. Let’s put our hand on our hearts as it should be.
In what other areas should entrepreneurs put their hands on their hearts with the working class?
The situation is so bad because there is a lack of job creation, and why is there a lack of job creation? There are four countries that have a huge surplus with the United States: China, with almost 400 billion dollars a year; Japan, $ 65 trillion a year; Germany, 62 trillion dollars a year; Mexico, which is a country like ours, with a 65 billion trade surplus. But it turns out that in our FTA with the United States, we only send them 15 or 16 billion dollars in merchandise and they return 17 to us. It turns out that we have a trade deficit with the largest market in the world because we do not have enough companies to produce and export and produce and take advantage of that perfect raw material that we have: human resources. Colombians are the best employees in the world, we are the least problematic, we are the ones who do the most. My windows are not sold in the United States because I am a genius, they are sold because they are of the best quality because they make them, not because I make them, they make them.
(We recommend: This is Daes, the businessman who ‘sends egg’ at 2% of the minimum wage).
Is there too little employment for our skilled workforce?
We have a privileged workforce. If we were able to create jobs and export one, two, three billion dollars more to the United States, we would be talking about a country in different conditions. What happens is that we have dedicated ourselves to exporting coal, oil, flowers, coffee, which are products of little added value and with an established price, and we are doing the harakiri …
That is why I invite the President and all businessmen to join us to see how we can get out of this lethargy in generating employment. We need to start more companies. We need to bring Apple to Colombia and tell them: we need to assemble the product for them and then we make parts for their products. We want to give an exemption to 5, 10, 15 or 20 years, but we need to create jobs that are well paid so that our youth, our engineers and our architects when they graduate do not go out to work for a million pesos, which is something so unfair .
ESTEWIL QUESADA AND JOHN MONTAÑO
EL TIEMPO editors
Barranquilla
