Since it is by subscription only, I thought I would translate today’s editorial in Tal Cual (page 2) by Teodoro Petkoff in reference to the way the oil workers are being treated at the oil fields. As usual, Petkoff’s common sense explains the perversity of the Government’s actions in very simple fashion:
How much greatness…how much misery!
OK, let us admit that once the labor relationship has been suspended, the ex-PDVSA workers have to abandon their houses which belong to the company (Although they still owe us an explanation about the brutality of the eviction)
Let us even assume as valid the reason for the firings: unjustified absence from work for three or more days.
Let us admit then that the company is adhering itself strictly to the law. Then why, isn’t the same legalistic prudishness extended to the other side of the coin of the obligations of the company, which is that they have to pay the severance benefits of the fired workers? The law is very clear
Severance pay benefits in Venezuela are not only irrevocably of the workers, but its payment is compulsory for the company, no matter what the cause that ceased the labor relationship, including unjustified firings for a grave cause. Thus, then, I fire you, I evict you out of your home, I kick your kids out of school, I forbid private oil companies from hiring you, but as if this was not enough, I confiscate your severance pay. What greatness of the soul, Lord of the Armies!
8:16:16 PM 
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