Pedro Parente, the recently appointed new CEO of Brazil’s troubled state oil firm Petrobras, is planning to slash pay and working hours in a bid to reduce the company’s huge debt, according to Reuters.
Parente, an engineer and formerly the energy minister of Brazil, wants to make a deal with the trade unions which will involve cuts of as much as 25% in salaries.
He was appointed to the Petrobras hot seat in May by acting national president Michel Terner who inherited his own hot seat when Dilma Rousseff was suspended pending impeachment hearings.
Parente’s plan is to reduce Petrobras’ salaries by 25% effective from September.
Unions rejected a proposal to cut wages made by Parente’s predecessor Aldemir Bendine last year.
Petrobras, a massive offshore oil producer, has been hit by the plunge in oil prices and the effects of its huge bribes-for-inflated-contracts corruption scandal.
