CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela’s socialist government has extended a two-day workweek for public sector employees for another two weeks because of a drought that has sapped hydroelectric power generation in the OPEC country.
The South American country’s 2.8 million employees already have Fridays off during April and May. President Nicolas Maduro in late April gave them Wednesdays and Thursdays off too, and cancelled school on Fridays.
Maduro’s rivals have called the shortened workweek foolhardy, arguing that sending employees home will not solve the power crunch and halting activity will merely worsen Venezuela’s deepening recession.
But the ruling Socialist Party said yesterday the measures would last until at least May 27.
“The Bolivarian government has decided to extend the special policy of non-working days,” Aragua state Governor Tareck El Aissami said in a speech on state television from the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas.
“These measures are due to insufficient rains. The rains were very light, and the situation at Guri remains critical,” he said.
Drought has reduced water levels at Venezuela’s main dam and hydroelectric plant in Guri, which covers about two-thirds of the country’s energy needs, to near-critical levels.
Water shortages and electricity cuts have added to the hardships of Venezuela’s 30 million people, already enduring a brutal economic slowdown, shortages of basics from milk to medicines, soaring prices and long lines at shops.
