Petrobras headquarters in the center of Rio de Janeiro (Sergio Moraes / Reuters)
After Petrobras announced the sale of part of BR Distribuidora and issuing bonds to raise funds, the oil price decline intensified the crisis in the company, which has now extended the financial crunch to employees. With the argument that the time is "efforts", the direction issued internal memo stating that some "manageable operating expenses" will be reduced or suspended. The announcement was made on 26 August. The company's accounts, 12 billion dollars will be cut (the equivalent of 45 billion reais) by 2019 in employee expenses, such as courses and travel.
The state did not explain how he came to value. In the statement, list only the "major immediate action" cutting spending and directs staff to seek more information to superiors. Questioned the company did not detail the goals and cuts of volumes for each planned action, or even if additional measures such as cutting outsourced employees, enter the account. The state has about 80 900 own employees and about 200,000 contractors.
The value of the cuts approaches the revenue of 15.7 billion dollars estimated by equity sales plan until next year, stalled because of the global crisis in the oil industry. Petrobras denies relationship between the cuts and the difficulty in selling assets.
In the document sent to employees, the company points out a series of measures to be taken to "optimize costs". From now on, the state will no longer pay for gatherings of employees, or language courses "in self mode". Corporate cars with drivers, only for the presidency and the board. And even the vehicles generally available to employees can only be used for "operational needs".
Trips are limited to the "urgent". When unable to avoid the order is paid for the carriage of a single employee involved in the project that caused the trip. Investments in training outside Brazil are also suspended. The distribution of gifts was prohibited, as well as unwarranted spending on taxis and unnecessary overtime. Professional training was restricted to Petrobras University.
It has been determined although bids or any kind of hiring specialized consulting services in management, organization and processes should be submitted to the board. Nothing will be approved without the approval of the first echelon of Petrobras, led by President Aldemir Bendine. "The cost reduction actions disclosed herein alone will not solve our challenges, but are important to achieve the spending reduction targets," said the Executive Manager of Corporate Performance, Mário Jorge da Silva, in a statement.
The board member representing the employees, Deyvid Bacelar, linked to the Single Federation of Oil Workers (FUP), criticized the measures. He said he has traveled to the units of Petrobras and heard complaints from employees that management ignored the opinion of the employees to prepare the cuts package. To complete the federation tankers scheduled for next Sunday the start of a general strike.Among the claims of the class are the suspension of the divestiture program and the completion of construction of the Petrochemical Complex of Rio de Janeiro (Comperj) and the Abreu e Lima Refinery (Rnest).
