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In accordance with the Political Constitution of the Republic of Panama, voting in the general elections is both a right and a duty that all voters, Panamanian citizens, have.
Under this perspective, the Electoral Code contains a series of rules applicable to private companies in regard to these elections (arts. 406 and 407). It is important that employers are aware of them and can adequately plan the activities in their companies. The rules for workers on election day are as follows:
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Paid Leave to Vote. Workers who work on Sunday election day are entitled to paid leave to attend voting. The law does not establish a specific period of time, therefore this does not mean that they can be absent the whole day or even half a day. However, it is important for companies that work on that day to make a schedule that allows their workers to take a reasonable amount of time to exercise their right to vote.
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Paid leave to exercise electoral functions. If any of the company’s workers is a member of the electoral corporations or is an electoral delegate, he/she will be entitled to paid leave for the time in which they carry out their functions. For these purposes, the workers must submit to their employer a certification issued by the Electoral Tribunal stating the days in which they exercised their functions.
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Paid leave after elections. After the election day or the day on which their functions end, the members of the scrutiny boards shall be entitled to three (3) paid days off. In the case of the members of the voting tables and the electoral delegates, the paid leave is two (2) days.
For more information, please get in touch with our Labor Law team at [email protected].