Lisbon, Sept. 26, 2025 (Lusa) - TAP's unions anticipate that there will be no demand for the shares reserved for workers as part of the privatisation, accusing the government of alienating them from the process by not providing for a 5% discount, as happened in previous operations.
The Aviation and Airport Workers' Union (SITAVA) believes "that the government has deceived the workers once and is now trying to do it a second time", union spokesman Paulo Duarte told Lusa.
"Our perception is that not a single share will be taken. In fact, I dare say that the government knows this perfectly well and even wants it, so that the new shareholder can keep the 49%," he added.
The president of the National Union of Civil Aviation Flight Personnel (SNPVAC), Ricardo Penarroias, considered that the issue of the 5% "is not relevant or is not a priority", but argued that the exclusion of the workers is "yet another indication of the government's intention to keep them out of the process".
"In fact, we believe that this removal of workers is a measure to attract interested parties from outside Europe," he pointed out.
Ricardo Penarroias recalled that they have been critical of the way this whole process is being conducted, "namely due to the lack of participation by the unions, the timing in which it is being carried out and, of course, the lack of guarantees and safeguards in relation to the interests of the company, the country and the jobs".
He also revealed that "so far, there has been no contact from members showing interest in acquiring shares in the company".
The Civil Aviation Pilots' Union (SPAC) also considered it "unacceptable" that the specifications that "grant substantial tax benefits to the reference investor - through accumulated tax credits (around €487 million) and the loss carry-forward scheme - now remove the 5 % discount historically granted to workers".
'This situation represents a revolting asymmetry: workers are denied a modest 5% benefit on a portion that doesn't exceed 5% of the capital, while the buyer is offered years of tax relief worth multiples of that discount,' the vice-president of the union's board, Frederico Saraiva de Almeida, told Lusa.
'TAP workers, who are also taxpayers, made the biggest sacrifices during the restructuring - with pay cuts of more than 60 % among pilots - to make the operation viable,' he recalled.
According to the leader, "demand for the 5% without discount will naturally be reduced", considering it "an exercise in cynicism to ask workers to buy at the same price as the investor, after they were the first to pay for the company's recovery".
SPAC also stressed that it was "particularly revolting" that the government "is not taking advantage of this reprivatisation process to compensate workers for the investment lost in the 2022 harmonium operation, which eliminated the 5% of TAP SGPS capital they had held since 2015, now forcing them to buy back at no discount what they already owned and which was taken away from them".
"The government has thus converted a participation instrument into a mere symbolic formality, contrary to the spirit of the Privatisation Framework Law and the precedents of TAP itself," he added.
As Lusa reported, the government justified not including a discount on the purchase of shares for workers by citing the need to protect the €3.2 billion invested by taxpayers in TAP.
In previous privatisation processes, a 5% discount was applied, which is not included in the current specifications.
The document, published on Monday evening in the Diário da República, provides for the direct sale of 44.9 % of the company's share capital and establishes that employees can acquire up to 5% of the share capital. The unsubscribed part will be passed to the private investor, who will take over the shareholding position.
SCR/ADB // ADB.
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