The Superior Labor Court (TST) determined, this Saturday (27), that 80% of Petrobras workers remain active in each of the company’s units. The decision came after a request for emergency relief filed by Petrobras due to a national strike for an indefinite period that began on the 15th.
In addition to the minimum percentage, it was also defined that union entities will not be able to prevent free access to equipment or the flow of production. The fine, in case of non-compliance, was set at R$200 thousand reais per day.
“Such measure finds support, especially, in the fact that the collective negotiation process is still ongoing, as well as in the circumstance that thirteen union entities approved the proposal presented, with a large majority in their assemblies, with the wall movement remaining restricted to certain segments”, stated in the decision of Minister Vieira de Mello Filho, president of the TST.
He also scheduled a conciliation hearing between Petrobras and workers’ representative entities at the TST headquarters on January 2nd, at 2pm. If there is still no agreement, an extraordinary session will be held at the Specialized Section for Collective Disputes (SDC) of the TST, on January 6, at 1:30 pm.
After the decision, the Single Federation of Oil Workers (FUP) stated that “it is analyzing, together with Sindipetro-NF, the legal steps that will be taken to protect workers’ right to strike and guarantee the achievements of the Collective Labor Agreement)”. Estadão sought contact with the National Oil Workers Front (FNP) and Petrobras for their position on the matter, but received no response until the publication of this report.
Strike at Petrobras
Petrobras employees went on strike at midnight on December 15th, a Monday, after three proposals for a Collective Labor Agreement (ACT) presented by the company were rejected. Last Sunday (21), the FUP considered “significant progress” in the negotiations, but the strike continued.
The strike encompasses 14 unions affiliated to the FUP, which has 32,000 members and 101,000 workers, and four affiliated to the FNP, which represents around 26,000 workers in the Petrobras System, which involves states such as São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Espírito Santo, Minas Gerais, Amazonas and Paraná.
The entities did not approve the real increase proposed by the company, of 0.5%, in the same year in which Petrobras disbursed R$37.3 billion in dividends (numbers between January and September). “The offer is disrespectful to the company’s record profits,” said the FNP, which considered the proposals “undignified” in a statement.
The unions also ask for a solution to the Deficit Equating Plans (PEDs) of the Petrobras Social Security Foundation (Petros), a pension fund that manages supplementary pension plans for employees. PEDs seek to balance a pension plan that records an actuarial deficit (when future payment commitments exceed available resources), which causes extraordinary contributions to be charged from its participants to cover the amount of the deficit.
At the time, Petrobras stated, in a note sent to Estadão, that it adopted contingency measures to ensure the continuity of operations, that supply to the market would be guaranteed and that there would be no impact on the production of oil and derivatives.
“The company respects its employees’ right to demonstrate and maintains a permanent channel of dialogue with union entities, regardless of external agendas or public demonstrations,” the note said.
