Advanced Search

Share Coverage



Category: Business, Economics and Finance / Electricity Energy and Utilities / Government and Politics

Venezuela public sector workers to get Fridays off

Friday, 8 Apr 2016 07:46:29

Long queues are a familiar sight outside Venezuelan supermarkets recently. (AFP: Federico Parra)

Venezuela says public sector employees, other than those in the food industry, will have Fridays off until a drought stops hurting hydropower generation.

"Just because Maduro doesn't work Monday to Friday, Saturday or Sunday, doesn't mean we Venezuelans are like that."

Opposition MP Maria Corina Machado

With the OPEC country reeling from a power crunch, President Nicolas Maduro said this week that Fridays would be considered holidays for the next 60 days.

The leftist Government's official gazette said the move applied to government workers and excluded the food sector.

Venezuela's grave economic crisis already has grains, meat, dairy and vegetables running short.

Lines of hundreds sometimes snake around supermarkets, so a four-day work week in that sector would likely have worsened the scarcity.

Still, Mr Maduro's measure has sparked ridicule from his political opponents, who say it will aggravate an acute recession and demonstrates he is not governing seriously.

"Just because Maduro doesn't work Monday to Friday, Saturday or Sunday, doesn't mean we Venezuelans are like that," said opposition politician Maria Corina Machado.

"What we want is to keep working, and for you, Maduro, to go."

The opposition, which won control of the National Assembly in a December election, is pursuing a multi-pronged approach to remove Mr Maduro from office this year.

Some public sector employees fretted the measure would throw off their routine without significantly saving energy in the country with the world's largest oil reserves.

"This decree is illogical," said Luis Miguel Lopez, who works for the wealthy opposition municipality of Chacao in capital Caracas.

"People are going to be at home consuming energy all the same."

Mr Maduro's rambling and sometimes expletive-laden late-night speeches, as well as his recent suggestion women cut down on use of hair dryers, has irked many Venezuelans struggling to make ends meet and desperate for a solution to the crisis.

Experts say stronger energy investment, maintenance and diversification would have better protected Venezuela from the El Nino-induced drought that is hitting much of the Andean region.

Reuters

AustraliaPlus


 

Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

沪公网安备 31010602000204号

Email this to your friend