Ecuadorian workers demand vacation and overtime pay and protest against poor working conditions.
The workers also demanded vacation and overtime pay and protested against poor working conditions.  | Photo: Radio Pichincha

Quito, January 20 (RHC)-- Workers of the state-owned company Petroecuador in Quito began this Wednesday an indefinite strike in demand of fair wages and in rejection of the poor conditions in hydrocarbon fields.

The participants gathered on Amazonas Avenue, north of the Ecuadorian capital, to request the resignation of manager Julio César Moscoso, for non-compliance with the salary homologation.  An attorney for the workers, Rafael Ponce, asserted that the official does not guarantee employees the guarantees established in a judicial sentence issued last January 15, which determines that for equal work, equal pay.

"This sentence was executed on January 15th and our colleagues should have had their new data with their new salaries, not earning pauper salaries of $420 and $460," indicated Ponce, who at the same time highlighted that some 4,800 workers would benefit from the provision.

The workers also demanded the payment of vacations and overtime, protested against the poor working conditions, and the situation of contamination of the work areas that harms their health.  They called for the removal of all managers, and urged that the positions be filled with someone with the skills and knowledge to assume the responsibility and thus increase the State's income.

For its part, Petroecuador issued a statement accusing the workers of attempting to take over a public building by force, but made no reference to the demands of the demonstrators or the company's failure to comply with the agreement on salaries.