A Peruvian labor authority said a halt at Aceros Arequipa’s mill in the Arequipa region is unfounded and demanded the company pay their dismissed workers.
Aceros Arequipa, one of Peru’s largest steelmakers, suspended activities at its Arequipa mill in late July due to the “unfair competition generated by the imports of sections from China at dumped prices,” as previously reported by SteelOrbis. Around 98 workers were dismissed.
At the time, at a filing at the nation’s securities exchange commission, Aceros Arequipa admitted the mill had “no conditions” to compete given the current economic conjuncture.
Despite the company’s claims for idling the mill and dismissing the workers, employees complained to a local labor authority, GRTPE, that the company fired them arbitrarily. The employees demanded payment for their wages as the provisional halt continues.
“Aceros Arequipa couldn’t explain in an effective way the reasons for suspending operations at its Arequipa mill, and as such, acted in an arbitrary way against its workers,” Arequipa’s labor authority, GRTPE, said.
GRTPE demanded Aceros Arequipa to make justice and pay the workers wages for the time the plant remains idled, noting that the reasons Aceros Arequipa used for suspending its activities are not proportional to the type of halt it adopted.
As the Arequipa mill remains shutdown, the company is concentrating sections production at its Pisco mill as a way to reduce costs. Aceros Arequipa said in July supply of sections to clients won’t be affected.