Porto, Portugal, Aug. 14, 2024 (Lusa) - Workers at Portuguese airports' ground handling company SPdH (Groundforce) have called a strike for 31 August and 1 September in protest at low wages, among other demands, according to a notice released on Wednesday by the Sttamp union.
In the document, the Portuguese Transport Workers' Union (Sttamp) issues a strike notice covering all national airports “from 00:00 on 31 August 2024 to 24:00 on 1 September 2024”.
The strike was called against ‘the existence of basic salaries lower than the national minimum wage’, as well as protesting against ‘the systematic use of workers from temporary labour companies’ and ‘overtime work that does not comply with the legal limits in force’.
The union also refers to the ‘successive changes to working hours outside the provisions of the Company Agreement’ and ‘the way the voluntary departure programme is being carried out, under threat of collective redundancy in a company where there are no people to work’.
Sttamp also justified the strike with the fact that ‘once again, regardless of the reason or the origin that weakens the company’ it is always ‘the workers who pay the bill’.
It therefore demands the ‘immediate reopening of the negotiating window to regulate the basic salary scales so that no level is lower than the national minimum wage’, the immediate ‘regulation of precarious contracting situations and/or temporary work companies’, as well as the ‘implementation of the 4/2 working hours system’ and the recognition and enhancement of the ‘handling professionals’ who, on a daily basis, guarantee the operation of national airports'.
According to the notice, ‘the workers will ensure the services necessary for the security and maintenance of equipment and facilities’ and ‘the provision of the minimum services indispensable for the satisfaction of unforeseeable social needs’.
Sttamp considers that the minimum services in question include ‘carrying out the flights necessary to satisfy critical problems relating to the safety of people and property, namely ambulance flights, those for declared in-flight emergencies’ and similar.
They also cover state and military flights and ensure that work is carried out on the islands, enabling ‘the first landing and take-off on the route between the mainland and the region’ in the Azores and ‘the first landing and take-off on the route between the mainland and the region’ in Madeira, as well as ‘the first landing and take-off on the flight between the islands (Funchal and Porto Santo)’.
Menzies Aviation announced in June that it had completed the acquisition of a 50.1% stake in Groundforce Portugal, more than a year after announcing the agreement for the new shareholder to join in March 2023.
TAP filed for Groundforce's insolvency in 2021, in a process whose provisional list of creditors at the time pointed to around €154 million in debts. Subsequently, according to the plan, the recognised debts stood at €136.2 million.
Menzies plans to make an initial investment of €12.5 million in Groundforce.
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