Sidor’s retirees affirm that the company failed to notify retirement within the time stipulated by law, and that it miscalculates the amount they should receive as a pension
Text: Francesca Diaz | Caroní Mail
On June 7, workers from the Siderúrgica del Orinoco (Sidor) marched to the Puerto Ordaz Palace of Justice to file a constitutional labor protection action against the state company, for the execution of forced retirements, the non-payment of benefits for retirees and the miscalculated amounts of pensions with which the employee goes to non-active payroll.
The appeal was introduced in the Labor Court of First Instance with Constitutional Jurisdiction of Puerto Ordaz, established in file 4P11-0-2023-12, and the complainants are being represented by the lawyer Francisco José Fermín Coffi, the legal co-agent of the workers. José Manuel Guilarte Rodríguez, Hipólito Rafael Cedeño, Candelario Rafael Magallanes, Edgar Arturo Amarista and Emeterio de Jesús Jauregui.
The workers, all with more than 40 years of uninterrupted work in the company, denounce having been forcibly retired under irregular conditions that violate the National Constitution, the Organic Law of Labor, Workers and Workers (Lottt) and the current collective contracting of sidor.
In Venezuela, the pensions offered by the IVSS are equivalent to the minimum wage, today below 130 dollars. The workers of the basic companies should be retired with “80% of what the active counterpart worker earns”, although the complaints affirm that this is not being respected by the CVG.
The irregularities begin with the notification of retirement that, by collective contract, should be done 6 months before so that the worker can prepare; however, this was breached. In turn, the worker must receive payment for his benefits five days after the termination of the employment relationship, according to article 142 of the Lottt, payment that those affected have not yet received.
Finally, the employee must retire, according to the collective agreement, and receive 80% of his salary, while the complainants claim to be receiving only 30% of the salary.
Given this circumstance, they demand an unnamed precautionary measure of suspension of forced retirement, of the calculations derived from retirement, and the immediate restitution to jobs in favor of Sidor workers who are in the same situation, “with in order to safeguard their labor rights, there being a serious presumption of the violation of constitutional guarantees”, this in order to render these retirements without effect.
Likewise, in its chapter V the complaint extends the petition so that the legal situations infringed, violated, broken, camouflaged, be restored to the complainants.
Payment default since 2021
Those affected denounce that from the end of 2022 to January 2023 the suspension of wages for workers who are part of the company’s retirement commission has intensified.
Likewise, Correo del Caroní has followed the complaint of groups of retirees from different companies attached to the Venezuelan Corporation of Guayana (CVG), who assure that since 2021 the company has stopped complying with the payment of benefits, presumably due to lack of resources, but continues to retire workers. This situation leaves the elderly without economic resources to face the cessation of their active working life.
“We are introducing a constitutional protection remedy because the majority of class B shareholders are being forcibly retiring. Older adults have protection and labor rights established in the Constitution, the Labor Law, the Older Adult Law… However, today we have to file a lawsuit to try to compensate the damages that have been caused to the workers. We have come here to the CVG to solve the problem of retirees and pensioners,” said Jonis Luna, a Sidor worker and member of the Single Class B Shareholders Commission.
CVG policy
During the month of April, a group of 120 retirees from Ferrominera Orinoco reported to this newspaper that they were in the same situation, then they assured that they receive pensions of less than 10 dollars and that they had been “thrown out to the streets to starve.”
It should be noted that in Venezuela the pensions offered by the Venezuelan Institute of Social Security (IVSS) are equivalent to the national minimum wage, today below 130 dollars. The workers of the basic companies should be retired with “80% of what the active counterpart worker earns”, although the complaints affirm that this is not being respected by the CVG.
In February, 195 retirees from CVG parent company stated that they had been waiting for the payment of their social benefits for more than 3 months without receiving any response to their claims in this regard. For the month of June, workers continue without receiving payment, which translates into a delay of more than 6 months. Despite the non-payment, the workers were transferred to retiree payrolls with a salary reduction, according to their statements, of up to 35%.
*Read also: Colombia’s CNE postponed hearing to hear testimonies from Benedetti and Sarabia
Post Views: 25
