Fired Venezuela oil workers will not return-PDVSA

Reuters, 06.13.03, 1:35 PM ET CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - More than 18,000 Venezuelan oil workers fired for participating in an anti-government strike will not be allowed to return to their jobs despite a court ruling that they were illegally sacked, state oil firm Petroleos de Venezuela said Friday. A Venezuelan court on Thursday ruled that rebel oil workers, fired during the December to January strike against leftist President Hugo Chavez, were covered by a state-decreed firing freeze at the time of their dismissals. But Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) said the ruling did not order the reinstatement of the workers who were fired. "We are not ready to accept their return, those who abandoned their posts and failed in their duty with disastrous consequences for the country," a PDVSA statement said. "We will take the necessary measures to guarantee that our principal industry does not fall victim ever again to their anti-national interests," it added. PDVSA fired around half of its work force, including engineers, office workers and managers, for participating in the strike that plunged the oil-reliant economy deeper into recession. The government later used troops and loyal replacement workers to restart the oil sector. On Friday, more than 100 fired workers gathered outside a former PDVSA office in Caracas to celebrate the court decision, blowing whistles and chanting "We are united". "(The court decision) confirms that... the firings are, in addition to being unconstitutional, absolutely irregular," Horacio Medina, a leader of the oil workers' union Unapetrol told reporters. But Unapetrol representatives acknowledged that the government was likely to appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court and that months of legal wrangling lay ahead. "It's a first step," one fired oil executive told Reuters at the gathering. The strike slashed the oil production of the world's No. 5 crude exporter for more than two months. Chavez opponents say his leftist "revolutionary" anti-poverty programs are destroying the economy and that he is attempting to impose Cuba-style communism in the OPEC nation.