No more free lunch

Nearly a quarter million Cuban workers are discovering there's no such thing as a free lunch.

The government is dramatically expanding a programme that shuts workplace cafeterias while giving people stipends to buy food on their own.

It is part of a larger plan to chip away at the raft of daily subsidies that have long characterised life on the island.

The Communist Party newspaper Granma reported Friday that a pilot programme that began in October to eliminate free lunches for 2,800 government workers will grow to include another 225,000 as of July 1. The move will save the cash-strapped country US$27 million.

The reform is being extended to state bank workers, employees at the tourism, transportation, foreign investment, basic industry and foreign relations ministries, as well as workers at the government retail giant CIMEX and the Office of the City of Havana Historian and the Cuban Chamber of Commerce.

The new round of cafeteria closings means that in all, about five per cent of Cuba's official work force of nearly five million will have to fend for themselves at lunch time, though the government will provide about 70 US cents per workday to help pay for it.

The government controls well over 90 per cent of the economy and almost everyone works for the state.

Philosophy change

Education through college and health care are free, and housing, utilities, transportation and food are heavily subsidised, but government workers earn an average of less than US$20 per month.

The reform represents a change in philosophy for the government, which has traditionally micromanaged many aspects of Cubans' lives - from monthly ration books to determining who can own a car.

Cuba's always-fragile economy has been hit hard by the global financial crisis and President Raul Castro, who took over from his elder brother Fidel in February 2008, has said he wants to cut costs by streamlining the stifling bureaucracy and putting a measure of decision-making in the hands of citizens.

A simple meal like a pork sandwich from a street stand costs about 25 cents, while pasta bought from a vendor may run about twice that - meaning some workers could save money.

- AP