Costa Rica turns the screws still more on bureaucrats

Some 45 claims have been registered in Costa Rica's supreme constitutional court against what are known as "collective conventions".

The "conventions" are the benefits or "perks" enjoyed by public servants who work in state-owned banks, municipalities, universities and autonomous institutions. The possibility of the imposition of a blanket ban on the perks has been mooted in recent weeks in the country, La República reports in Spanish.