Friday, November 21, 2008

Venezuela to pay VEB 10,000 bonus to Sidor workers

It is reported that nearly 8,600 employees subcontracted by Venezuelan steelmaker Sidor will receive a bonus of VEB 10,000 as part of an agreement with the government.
Mr Omar Martínez president of Venezuela's steel industry association Aces, which represents service companies contracted by Sidor, said that 'The government is making the payment, not the company. This is a populist measure by the government because of upcoming gubernatorial elections.'

The agreement was reached when Sidor's external employees halted operations at the plant last week. Employees brought works back to speed on November 12th 2008.

It may be noted that after Sidor's nationalization in April 2008, the Venezuelan government promised to hire nearly 8,000 external employees but several labor leaders and unions have said the company cannot handle the burden of additional employees on its payroll.

Mr Martínez also believes that the government did not take Aces' proposal into account when the association suggested a pay scale for establishing the prices to appear on new external contracts the company signs, which would improve working condition for service providers. The Sidor plant in Ciudad Guayana has 4.2 million tonnes per annum liquid steel capacity and is the country's biggest steelmaker.

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