As soon as the worker arrived at the company, the administration filed an personnel card for that worker listing everything from family relations to terms of employment and penalties. Both Y.P.F. and Astra kept these cards on file until well after the worker left. Below are some examples of the types of cards used at the oil companies. These cards also indicated the salaries earned by the worker in accordance to the type of work they had at the company.
Astra
From Sāo Brás de Alportel, Faro Portugal From Favacal Coimbra, Portugal
Y.P.F.
Front Back
As these personnel cards show, wages depended on the position within the workforce. At the beginning European workers tended to earn more money and benefits based on their skills. On average though, workers at both oil compainies earned considerably more in minimum wage then those workers in Buenos Aires. Between the years of 1922 and 1930 the minumum wage at both Astra and Y.P.F balanced each other out. The chart below shows the various minimum wage per day for workers in the two oil companies in 1923 based on occupation:
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**Bonus reflected in salary
(St, 135)
It was easier for a single skilled man to obtain higher leveled positions within a certain time period than it was for a unskilled married man. Therefore a single man could inevitably save up money to leave the company town and find work elsewhere.
One last area in which the company had control over the worker was in enforcing the rules of the workplace. Officers patrolled the area reporting to the administration those workers violating ceratin rules and regulations. The companies required all workers to wear a badge (usually a number) indicating who they were and if the worker did not have posses this at the time of inquiry, the officer would record the violation on the aforementioned personnel card. Workers received penalites depending on the severity of the violation. Those workers participating in strikes were suspended for a predetermined amount of time.
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