Brazil wage bill trending down

June 20, 2013Brazil Institute Leave a comment

Kenneth Rapoza – Forbes, 06/20/2013

Brazil’s real wage bill (after inflation) is on a downward trend after months of locals bringing home more cash.

The tight labor market there have helped Brazilians feel more secure. And that tightness continues unabated. The May unemployment rate was flat at 5.8%, even as the market expected it to inch closer to 6%.

Growth is slowing across the board. Brazil’s labor force rose 0.2% month over month seasonally adjusted, with occupied and unemployed moving up proportionally and therefore keeping the national unemployment rate flat.

Brazil job creation falls for second straight month

July 23, 2012Brazil Institute 1 Comment

Reuters, 07/23/2012

(Reuters) – Brazil’s economy added a net 120,440 payroll jobs in June, the labor ministry said on Monday, fewer than the number of jobs added the previous month and in June 2011, as a slowdown in the local and global economy begins to weigh on the labor market.

Brazil was expected to add 151,000 jobs in June, according to a Reuters poll.

Job creation has fallen in the last two months as a lackluster manufacturing sector leads factories to hire fewer workers.

June’s result was the worst for the month since 2009, when the country was still struggling with the fallout of the global financial crisis. The economy added 139,679 jobs in May and 215,393 jobs in June of 2011.

GM union strikes at Brazil plant for 24 hours

July 17, 2012Brazil Institute 1 Comment

Brad Haynes – Reuters, 07/17/2012

SAO PAULO, July 16 (Reuters) – A Brazilian union carried out a 24-hour strike at a General Motors Co factory on Monday to protest dwindling output on an assembly line where workers fear for the future of 1,500 jobs.

The Metalworkers Union of Sao Jose dos Campos said in a statement that the strike had paralyzed production at the plant, near Sao Paulo, which normally produces 750 vehicles per day. But a GM executive said many employees still came into work, allowing for production at a slower pace.

“On the first shift, which is the most productive, we had enough workers to continue above half capacity” said Luiz Moan, GM’s head of institutional relations in Brazil, in a telephone interview. He added that a third of workers on the second shift came in to work

BASF says Brazil court suspends damages ruling

July 5, 2012Brazil Institute 1 Comment

Reuters, 07/03/2012

(Reuters) – Chemicals maker BASF said a Brazilian court suspended a ruling for BASF and oil major Shell to pay 1.06 billion Brazilian reals ($525.23 million) into a compensation fund for former employees at a pesticides plant.

Brazil’s highest labour court put the verdict from a lower court on hold after BASF and Shell lodged an appeal, Germany’s BASF said in a statement late on Wednesday.

The workers claim their health had suffered or remains at risk of suffering from having worked at the Paulinia pesticides plant.

Brazil judge: Shell, BASF must put $382M in fund

July 3, 2012Brazil Institute 1 Comment

Bradley Brooks – Associated Press, 07/02/2012

A Brazilian judge has ruled that the local subsidiaries of oil company Shell and the world’s largest chemical company, BASF, must pay $382 million into a compensation fund to potentially cover more than 1,000 workers who allege they were contaminated and sickened at an agricultural chemical plant.

BASF SA said in a Monday statement that it would appeal the ruling by judge Maria Ines Correa Targa. Shell SA said it would abide by the decision pending a higher court’s ruling on the workers’ class-action lawsuit that is before a court in the national capital, Brasilia.

Prosecutors said any money actually paid into the fund would be frozen until the workers’ damage suit is finalized — but they wanted it in the fund as a guarantee.