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Maintenance stoppages at Petrobras refineries increase the rate of Covid-19 contamination among company workers
Petrobras continues to carry out maintenance shutdowns at its refineries throughout Brazil. During services at the refineries, thousands of outsourced workers from all locations are hired, increasing the number of cases of workers infected with Covid-19 during services. According to data, at least 10 employees have already died as a result of the new coronavirus.
Maintenance shutdown at a refinery in the state of Minas Gerais
The Gabriel Passos Refinery – Regap, owned by Petrobras, located in Betim, in the metropolitan region of Belo Horizonte, had a health outbreak of covid-19 during the maintenance shutdown. At the refinery, there were already around 900 employees who came into contact with over 2.300 contractors hired by Petrobras to carry out the service in two of the plant's units.
The covid-19 outbreak at the Petrobras refinery in MG began to show signs in the first week of maintenance, in which 80 employees tested positive for the new coronavirus. The Oil Workers Union of Minas Gerais states that 11 workers are still hospitalized and that 5 ended up in the ICU.
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Guilherme Carvalho Alves, director of the Oil Workers Union of Minas Gerais, says they asked Petrobras for the maintenance to take place gradually. He also says that the maintenance service is necessary, the production of fuel is also essential, but Guilherme says that it could happen in a different way so as not to have many cases of contamination.
Petrobras Landulpho Alves Refinery
At Rlam – Refinaria Landulpho Alves, located in São Francisco Conde, in the state of Bahia, workers also asked Petrobras to postpone maintenance. Deyvid Bacelar, current general coordinator of the Single Federation of Oil Workers – FUP, says that refineries generally interrupt maintenance every three years, but there may be delays.
Deyvid also mentions that some rules were issued during the pandemic that could postpone the maintenance of Rlam, but Petrobras never wanted to discuss the matter. The rules he says were created by the Special Secretariat for Social Security and Labor of the Ministry of Economy, is Ordinance 15.797, created on July 2 last year. This rule says that due to the pandemic, the postponement of safety inspections of some equipment used by the oil industry may occur.
During maintenance work at the Petrobras refinery in Bahia, almost 4.000 outsourced workers arrived at the site in February. The coronavirus outbreak at the site began just the month workers arrived at the refinery and the union says 2 workers have died.
Petrobras refinery in Paraná
Maintenance at Repar – Refinaria Presidente Getúlio Vargas, which has not yet closed the staff for the works, has already registered 3 deaths due to covid-19. Maintenance at the Petrobras refinery began yesterday (12) Monday, and around 3.000 employees are on site.
For Repar's maintenance work, hired employees arrived in Paraná in February and, since then, deaths from covid-19 in the country have grown from 1.000 to 4.000.
Alexandro Guilherme Jorge, president of the Oil Workers Union of Paraná and Santa Catarina, says that Petrobras only agreed to postpone part of the maintenance work until the next 26th, however, according to the president, this is not enough. Alexandro also adds that 99% of the services scheduled at the refinery are not essential, they can be postponed.
MME issues data on state-owned workers infected with covid-19
According to data from the Ministry of Mines and Energy, since the beginning of the pandemic, more than 6 Petrobras employees have been infected with covid-19. The company has over 46.000 employees and this means that 13% of the company's workers have had the virus. According to information from the MME, Petrobras had 339 employees contaminated and in quarantine on the 5th. There are another 47 employees hospitalized.
Petrobras' contamination rate is almost twice the country's total population. Brazil has approximately 211 million residents and more than 13 million people have been infected, that is, they represent about 6% of the total.
The state-owned company reported that it complies with all health procedures to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus, including during maintenance stops at its refineries, such as the use of masks, the supply of hand sanitizer and the daily measurement of workers' body temperature.
