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the claims established in the action. In this process, which definitely provides for all
stages of the due process according to the Constitution and the law, there is also a
term for arguments. Practically all actions during this stage are in written form, and
they provide for the right to be heard by a competent court established prior to the
action deemed arbitrary or illegal, and comprised of qualified, competent, impartial
and independent judges. The Justices of the Supreme Court constitute the highest
authority in actions of all types;
they work with absolute independence and
impartiality, and are well-renowned persons. In Panama any disciplinary system
must be founded on internal regulations. Private companies with more than two
workers must have internal regulations where the working conditions are
established, as well as, among other things, the disciplinary sanctions that can be
applied to workers. Concerning public servants, there are different institutions in
Panama, some are autonomous, some are not, where, for the most part, internal
regulations governed by the provisions of the Administrative Code for as long as the
administrative career did not exist, were established.
Normally, disciplinary
sanctions established in the regulations in general, both for public servants, and for
private enterprise workers, consist of verbal reprimand, written reprimand,
suspension, and termination of the working relationship. In the field of the public
servants of state enterprises which would have special laws, such as the IRHE and
the INTEL, they would be governed by what was established by Law 8 of 1975, and
by what the internal regulations of each enterprise established. According to Law 8,
the justified causes that empower the employer to terminate the working
relationship are many and very much like those established by the Labour Code.
Among them are: lack of integrity, abrupt abandonment of the job, reiterated
reluctance of the worker to comply with the service agreed upon, criminal behaviour,
and immoral behaviour. According to Law 8, one single unjustified absence does not
constitute a justified cause to terminate the working relationship. There is the right
to dismiss for two absences on two Mondays within a term of one month, six days
within a term of one year, and three consecutive days. In Panamanian legislation,
with total independence from Law 25, there is not one single case where one
unjustified absence would be a cause for dismissal. Article 70 of the Constitution of
Panama provides that no worker may be dismissed without a fair cause and without
the formalities that the law establishes. Concerning the other workers of public
companies, at present the Administrative Career Law, passed in 1994, and the
regulations of said career, passed in 1997, govern their working relations. Before
this they had no regulations, and for this reason the Supreme Court had indicated
that said workers could be freely appointed and dismissed. In her opinion, what
could be applied during the period when there was no administrative career were the
Administrative Code and the organic law for the constitution of the respective
institution. Article 5 of Law 25 changes Law 8 of February 25, 1975, and Laws 34,
38, 39, and 40 of 1979, in those aspects found contrary to it. Concerning the
Ministry of Public Works, it has its organic law, and the Labour Code is not applicable
to its public servants either. In 1990, the Administrative Code, its organic law, which
is the law that created it, and its internal regulations, were applicable to them. She
cannot say for sure whether the Administrative Code contains provisions on stability
on the job, termination of contract, or dismissal of the worker. What has occurred in
the periods during which the workers are not protected by an administrative career,
is that, since they can be freely appointed and dismissed, their contracts have been
declared non subsistent. At the level of both, the public servants, and the Labour
Code, the formality to which the law refers concerning dismissal is that this be done
by means of a written notice with an indication of the reason that led to the
dismissal, and the date of the situation. There was no deterioration of the judicial
guarantees of the workers by virtue of Law 25. At the level of both, the Conciliation
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