The stoppage at the La Teja refinery will continue until March 2024, according to the new task schedule that the National Administration of Fuel, Alcohol and Portland (Ancap) prepared after reaching an agreement with the unions and business chambers to carry out maintenance works at the main plant of the state oil company of Uruguay.
Almost two months later than originally planned, maintenance work began on Monday at 12 hour shifts at the La Teja refinery. However, it will not be until March 20, 2024 that the plant will return to operation, almost three months later than intended. Ancap.
The refinery, which stopped producing at the beginning of September—when operations should have begun—plays a fundamental role in the supply of fuel in the domestic market and even in controlling prices when increases in international values They are very abrupt. However, the union conflict with the Ancap Federation (Fancap) following the union’s rejection of the opening of the portland business to private partners, delayed scheduled maintenance tasks.
In this way, instead of being operational at the end of December, as had been initially contemplated, La Teja will return to operation on March 20, almost three months later, according to the planning presented by the main contractor for the critical tasks. in the catalytic cracking unit —approved by Ancap.
This date was achieved after the board of directors of the state oil company reached an agreement with Fancap, the Single National Union of Construction and Annexes (Sunca) and the business chambers —whose original contracts had to be modified due to changes in work times. The objective now is to execute the tasks and works in the “shortest possible time”, although climatic factors and possible unforeseen events could delay the opening of the refinery a little longer.
The agreement between Ancap and the union
Less than ten days ago, and after several months of declared conflict between Fancap and the board of directors of the state oil company, the parties finally reached an agreement to advance the maintenance of the La Teja refinery.
In the action protocol that reported Ancap Through a statement, the company promised to pay a special bonus if the tasks are carried out within the scheduled time, while at the same time Fancap admitted not affecting the continuity or the special work regime by carrying out measures of any kind.
The agreement, which bears the signature of, among others, the director of Ancap, Richard Charamelo, and the president of Fancap, Natalia Belo, proposes that “the activities related to the Refinery Unit Strike be carried out in an appropriate work environment”, but also “maintain control of the duration of maintenance tasks and works in the refinery in order to ensure supply to the population” .
To this end, they agreed to develop an action protocol so that, in the event of claims of any kind, the continuity and special work regime of the tasks in The Tile, something that can cause million-dollar losses, according to the firm’s board of directors. Within that point, the parties agreed that “any claim not resolved at the operational levels must be treated bipartitely, within a period of 2 business days” and, in case of disagreement, it will be moved to a tripartite instance, with the intervention of the Dynatra, with “a period of 2 business days” for resolution. If that does not happen, the office of the National Director of Labor, which will have 3 business days.
At the same time, it was agreed that any measure adopted by the union for issues unrelated to the maintenance stoppage “will not affect the continuity and the special work regime, except for general measures proposed by the PIT-CNT wave MSCE and exceptions agreed at the tripartite level with the Ministry of Labor and Social Security.
Source: Ambito
