Venezuela's government has extended a two-day workweek for public sector employees for another two weeks because of a drought that has sapped hydroelectric power generation in the OPEC country, according to Reuters. The South American country's 2.8 million employees already have Fridays off during April and May. President Nicolas Maduro in late April gave them Wednesdays and Thursdays off too, and canceled school on Fridays. "The Bolivarian government has decided to extend the special policy of non-working days," Aragua state Governor Tareck El Aissami said in a speech on state television from the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas. "These measures are due to insufficient rains. The rains were very light, and the situation at Guri remains critical," he said. Drought has reduced water levels at Venezuela's main dam and hydroelectric plant in Guri, which covers about two-thirds of the country's energy needs, to near-critical levels.
