A PDVSA worker and two former employees said the new wages remained inadequate and would not halt a brain drain that has the company desperate for engineers and chemists just as its production sinks to its lowest in decades.
According to an unofficial summary of the new salaries circulated by PDVSA workers, the lowest monthly salary is now 1,800 bolivars - the official minimum wage - or just $13.70 a month. The highest salary, for executives, was put at 6,400 bolivars, a whisker above $49 a month.
PDVSA did not respond to a request for information about the salaries.
Thousands of oil workers are fleeing the state-run firm under the watch of its new military management, which has quickly alienated the firm’s embattled upper echelon and its rank-and-file, sources have told Reuters.
Those who remain are increasingly unmotivated, irate over low wages, and fearful of work accidents as PDVSA’s installations deteriorate due to years of underinvestment and mismanagement.
“There is a lot of anger, and at the same time motivation, because workers have woken up and are not putting up with this anymore,” one refinery worker said this week.
Still, fears of dismissal and heavy military presence at PDVSA have kept protests in check in Venezuela, home to the world’s biggest crude reserves.
Reporting by Alexandra Ulmer; Editing by Marguerita Choy
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