MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazil's Central Bank workers go on indefinite strike

BCB's Campos Neto is in Miami since Thursday

Employees of Brazil’s Central Bank (BCB) Friday went on strike to demand better wages. The workers have announced that their measure will continue until an answer has been achieved. The new circumstances affect local payments and other services, it was reported.

A disruption in operations constitutes a major problem for President Jair Bolsonaro, who intends to seek reelection in October.

The strike is taking place while central bank head Roberto Campos Neto is in Miami on a pre-scheduled vacation. Until now, partial shutdowns have been affecting the release of economic indicators and other data.

SINAL labor union leader Fabio Faiad said Friday he expected between 60 and 70 % of the BCB workers to join the strike, which could affect Pix and other data releases such as the Focus survey of economists. Faiad also bemoaned the timing of Campos Neto’s vacation.

“Sadly, during such an important moment, the president of the central bank went on vacation to Miami, which does not help at all for us to find a solution to this crisis,” Faiad said in a statement.

Campos Neto, who has been on vacation since Thursday, came to meet virtually with workers’ representatives on Tuesday, but Faiad said the meeting was “a fiasco,” with no proposals.

The central bank’s Pix payment system has been a huge success in Brazil. It is free of charge for individuals and allows instant payments and transfers.

Just 15 months after its launch, it has been used by 114 million individuals in Brazil – 67% of the adult population, with transactions worth R$ 6.7 trillion (US$ 1.36 trillion) and recently surpassing the level of credit and debit cards.

(Source: Al Jazeera)