Portway acknowledges that the aviation workers union’s third day of strike, this Sunday, will cause 90 flight cancellationsin Lisbon and Porto, and describes the strike as “an irresponsible act”.
The ground handling company at Portuguese airports said that joining the strike of the National Union of Civil Aviation Workers (SINTAC) it was only 14%, but he admitted that this Sunday the strike will force the cancellation of 33 flights in Lisbon and 36 in Porto, in a total of 196 cancellations in the period of the three days of strike.
“Portway reiterates that this was an unreasonable strike and an irresponsible act, which undermines the company’s financial recovery and ability to translate that recovery into better conditions for workers,” Portway said in a statement.
The company regrets the damage suffered by passengers, airlines and Portway itself, and assures that it emerges from this situation with “a more fragile commercial and economic position”.
In the statement, Portway rejected the alleged reasons for calling the strike by SINTAC, guaranteeing that the company “complies with all applicable legislation and regulations”, including current company agreements and labor rights”, recalling that it made salary updates of 11%. since 2019 and paying holidays with an increase of 150% compared to the hourly rate.
Also rejecting the union’s criticism of the lack of investment, Portway affirms that it has invested around two million euros annually in equipment and installations, with two objectives: “improving the conditions of the workers and the environmental ‘performance’ of the company ”.
The company also denounced the lack of availability for dialogue on the part of the workers and their representatives, namely SINTAC.
“It was demonstrated, once again, the lack of availability of this union for a balanced negotiation, given the economic context of the company, in order to guarantee a fair distribution of value with the workers and ensure the economic viability of the company and the Job positions. in the long term”, can be read in the statement released today.
Portway guarantees, in turn, that it will continue “promote an objective and realistic dialogue with all available partnersto “avoid the difficulties faced by the entire sector”.
SINTAC called a strike at the ground handling company, at the airports of Lisbon, Porto, Faro and Funchal, starting at 00:00 hours on August 26 and ending at 24:00 hours on August 28, against the policy of “confrontation and devaluation of workers for consecutive breaches of the Company Agreement, disciplinary confrontation, absence of salary updates, misrepresentation of performance evaluations that prevent salary progression and bad faith in negotiations,” he said in a statement.
According to SINTAC, the strike aims to challenge “the HR policy [recursos humanos] assumed in recent years by Portway, a company owned by the Vinci group, of confrontation and devaluation of workers for consecutive breaches of the Company Agreement, disciplinary confrontation, lack of salary update, misrepresentation of performance evaluations that prevent salary progressions and bad faith in the negotiations”.
SINTAC accuses Portway of promoting a “climate of psychological terror, where threats and disciplinary processes proliferate, creating social instability unprecedented in the history of the company”, and the workers demand compliance with the 2016 Company Agreement and an evaluation of performance that do not serve to prevent progression.
Portway workers strike cancels 82 flights in Lisbon and 12 in Porto
Source: Observadora
