In Cuba, Reforms Mean Layoffs

HAVANA, Sept. 13, 2010— -- Communist Cuba is laying off hundreds of thousands of public employees as part of a move to reform one of the two surviving Soviet-style command economies.

To absorb those let go, the Caribbean island's government plans to issue hundreds of thousands of new licenses to those interested in working on their own or mounting small businesses, lease operations such as taxi services or barber shops, and will turn some small state services and manufacturing into cooperatives.

The official trade union federation announced today that half a million workers would be laid off over the next six months, and over a million in the next few years, and most would have to find employment in a rapidly expanding non-state sector.

Last month, Cuba liberalized regulations governing foreign use of its land, extending the time limit on such use from 50 years to 99 years in a move many experts forecast will boost real estate development around still-to-be-built golf courses and marinas.

"Our state cannot and should not continue maintaining companies, productive entities, services and budgeted sectors with bloated payrolls (and) losses that hurt the economy," the trade union federation said.

"Job options will be increased and broadened with new forms of non-state employment, among them leasing land, cooperatives and self-employment, absorbing hundreds of thousands of workers in the coming years," it said.

Laid-off state workers will be offered at least one other state job, and if they do not accept it they will have their unemployment benefits, equal to 70 percent of their wages for no more than three months, depending on their seniority, cut off, sources said.

The unemployed will not be totally out in the cold, because all Cubans receive free health care and education, subsidized utilities, a subsidized food ration and automatic adjustment of mortgages to 10 percent of the top breadwinner's income.