Venezuela Forces Employment Even With Shuttered Factories

[Bacchus4.0]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-10/venezuela-forces-employment-even-with-shuttered-factories.html

Jean Salero gets up at dawn to clock in for his daily shift at a shuttered beer factory in the Venezuelan city of Barquisimeto. After eight hours of checking valves and taking temperatures of idle machinery, he clocks out to earn his 4,700 bolivar ($746) monthly paycheck.

The former supervisor is among 220 workers who continue to draw wages at the plant that produced Brahma beer until Belgian owner Anheuser-Busch InBev NV (ABI), the world’s largest brewer, halted production four months ago.

Belgian owner Anheuser-Busch InBev NV, the world’s largest brewer, halted production of Brahma beer at the plant that produced the beer four months ago.

The closure reflects an overall contraction of Venezuelan industry. .Salero has kept his job because of a 2012 labor law that obliges companies to obtain government permission to fire anyone. The state has yet to approve a single dismissal, said Aurelio Concheso, the labor committee director at Venezuelan business chamber Fedecamaras. It’s a deterrent to investment in a country that already had the world’s most restrictive hiring and firing practices, according to rankings by the Geneva-based Global Economic Forum.

[Socialistlemur]

1. They will be employed but they won't be getting raises

The sad fact is that current decrees forbid layoffs as businesses close. What I've seen done is offers to employees to take "packages" which allow companies to lay personnel off.