Brazil Camacari workers await wage claim ruling

HOUSTON (ICIS news)--Brazilian petrochemical workers on Tuesday were awaiting a Supreme Court (STF) ruling on retroactive wage claims, official sources said.

The labourers at Camacari, Candeias and Dias D’Avila petrochemical production areas in Bahia state, located in the Brazilian northeast, seek retro-active salary corrections indexed to consumer price inflation from March 1990.

The workers filed their claims on the basis of a clause in the 1989 collective bargaining agreement with a provision for salary corrections, and the STF must decide whether this agreement or a later 1990 wage adjustment law will prevail in the case.

The 1990 wage law provided less favourable salary readjustments to the workers, according to the STF.

A ruling scheduled for Monday was postponed at the request of Supreme Court Justice Marco Aurelio to allow more time to study the case, the STF said.

Workers and union leaders had been gathered on Monday at STF in Brasilia with the expectation that a ruling would be given.

According to an Agencia Brasil official state media report, a ruling could be handed down as soon as Thursday.