Situation of Public Servants in Panama Situación de los Servidores Públicos en Panamá

Abstract

This analysis begins by addressing the usual criticism that society makes of public management through an approach that warns of the existing deficiencies in the public service and the labor regime of servers. We compare the situation in Panama with a conceptual approach to public service that some international organizations have provided. We outline through this effort the normative development, noting the possibility of finding contradictions in public administration. In later pages we confront how the Constitution develops different aspects of public workers, as well as the differential treatment between them and private workers in some cases. We use in several parts of this work sending rulings from both the Third Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice and the Plenary of said corporation, to know the jurisprudential interpretation in Panama on issues such as equality before the law, the right to stability of the server public and fair remuneration, retirement, among others. We develop specific aspects that address labor protection regulations up to the reflection on the very creation of the Administrative Court of Public Function as part of that necessary gear for the protection of the rights of civil servants in the workplace. Finally, we wanted to dedicate a section that would allow us to suggest, through a de lege ferenda analysis, possible necessary changes, both to our public management system and to the Political Constitution, considering them from the legal and factual point of view as real challenges and opportunities for our country.