The Paraguayan state electricity union sees "inflated" the cost of the increase in staff

The workers' union of the state electricity company of Paraguay today considered "very inflated" the government's calculations on the cost of incorporating 300 temporary employees to the permanent template, a measure announced to end a strike in the company.

Asunción, Nov 8 (EFE) .- The workers' union of the state electricity company of Paraguay today considered "very inflated" the government's calculations on the cost of incorporating 300 temporary employees to the permanent staff, a measure announced to end an unemployment in the company.

For the Treasury, the inclusion of those 300 workers to the staff will have a cost of about 3.4 million dollars, with a term of six months.

"Some data that seem very inflated," said today to Efe the general secretary of the Sitrande union, Esteban Montanía, estimate that with this amount can benefit 600 workers for a year.

The Ministry of Finance proposed on Tuesday this measure, in addition to a minimum wage adjustment Reference to which the bonuses are indexed, with which the calculation will be made about 389,8 dollars (2,199,314 guaraníes) instead of over 350 dollars (1,977,800 guaraníes) Current.

The secretary of Sitrande said that they knew the offer of the Ministry of Finance through the media and commented that the union had a working table with the authorities on Monday, "but there were no proposals."

Finance Minister Lea Giménez, today maintained the official position in an interview on a local radio and recalled that the rise The electricity tariff of last March was designed to make investments and not for wage increases.

The Minister of Finance added that the Government will keep the promise of use the collection of the state for investments and later "make those increases and adjustments" salary.

For Giménez, the plan of the Treasury to allocate 3.4 million dollars for to integrate 300 permanent workers and 3.1 million for the adjustment of the Minimum Reference Salary, is "quite reasonable".

The minister insisted that the state energy "is in a difficult financial situation" as a consequence of the fact that in the past "the investments that should have been made" were not made.

The company closed the year passed with losses of 13 million dollars (more than 73 billion guaranies), compared to the nearly 19 million dollars that it entered in 2015 (plus 107 billion dollars) guaranies).

However, the accounts of the state electricity company have returned to positive throughout this year and the accumulated profit and loss account through September shows a balance of 78 million dollars (more than 442 billion guaranies), according to the accounting documents published on the company's website.