Venezuela says no salary increase for oil workers

CARACAS, April 24 (Reuters) - Venezuela will not offer annual raises to energy workers this year due to lower oil revenues, the energy minister said on Friday, laying the ground for tough contract negotiations with unions this year.

The OPEC nation's oil unions complain state oil company PDVSA is delaying talks for a new collective bargaining agreement to replace the previous one which has expired, though most analysts say a widespread industry strike is unlikely.

An energy ministry press release said Rafael Ramirez informed workers that "this year there will be no salary increase or bonus for energy workers" and asked company employees to "defend the industry."

"This is like a slap in the face for the oil workers, it's a challenge, it's an insult," said oil union leader Felix Jimenez in a telephone interview.

Venezuela's oil unions are insisting their compensation be adjusted for the country's rampant inflation that closed 2008 at 32 percent -- the highest on the continent.

PDVSA has built up debts of at least $8 billion with service providers as the tumbling price of oil has left the company, which bankrolls leftist President Hugo Chavez's social programs, without enough cash to pay its bills.

In recent months PDVSA has halted some contracts with oil service companies, leaving around 5,000 indirect contract employees out of work, according to union officials.

Some of these employees have staged rallies and sporadic protests, though there is little evidence such protests have had an immediate impact on operations.

Calls for an industry-wide strike are mostly frowned upon by Venezuelans, who still remember a grueling two-month oil strike launched by dissident oil executives in 2002 in a failed bid to force Chavez from power.

Chavez regained control of the industry in early 2003 and sacked around 20,000 workers -- about half the work force at the time. The company now has some 75,000 direct employees, according the energy ministry's statement on Friday. (Reporting by Brian Ellsworth; Editing by Christian Wiessner)