The president of the College of Social Work Professionals of Puerto Rico (CPTSPR), Larry Emil Alicea Rodríguez, called on the Senate to approve two projects that propose better conditions and wages for professionals in the field on the island, since, currently, they live with a insecure salary, in addition to a workload that exceeds what they have to cover.
Senate Bills 893 and 894, introduced by the collective, propose the creation of a Bill of Rights for Social Work Professionals in Puerto Rico; and establish a minimum base salary for officials according to their academic preparation, regardless of whether they work in the public or private sector, which would start at $3,989 per month. The measures are signed by popular senators Elizabeth Rosa Vélez and Rosamar Trujillo Plumey, and popular senator Juan Zaragoza Gómez, among others.
“At the moment we are working in extremely insecure conditions, with extremely insecure salaries, with extremely overwhelming workloads that do not allow the provision of quality services to citizens… And what the Association of Social Work Professionals wants before this is that the Legislative Chambers consider projects 893 and 894 presented by the Association, and with the signatures of several legislators from different parties, so that [se atienda] this situation of working conditions and salary”, said the professional.
Regarding the governor’s veto of P. del S. 563, which increased the minimum wage for public sector workers, Alicea Rodríguez denied Senator Rubén Soto who, supposedly, indicated that the Association did not express itself regarding the project in question.
“When he says that we do not express ourselves, he is lying. […] The Association of Social Work Professionals went to his office to ask him to change the projects to include the public sector and review these salary increases because we are not peseteando”, said the professional comparing the salary of a social worker with that. of an employee in the commercial sector.
Likewise, he described that a day without social workers on the island would mean a lack of assistance services in communities, schools, hospitals, courts, among other agencies, which would, in turn, affect disadvantaged communities. In addition, he reported that the number of professionals, according to the Department of Family (DF), is close to a thousand, but warned that a decade ago it exceeded this figure. In fact, he repeated that the same secretary of the DF, Carmen Ana González Magaz, admitted that there are professionals who do not participate in calls for employment because of the salary problem.
“There are more social workers in the Education Department than in the Family Department,” he explained.
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“If social work were to paralyze its functions today, the country would actually be paralysed. The entire social provision of social services in the country would be greatly affected”, concluded the professional.
