The Hotel and Restaurant Union has called a strike for Monday that includes all workers in concession canteens in schools, hospitals, factories and services, a union leader said Thursday.
Monday’s strike only covers schools, hospitals, factories and services with privately owned mealsAlso excluding canteens run by the Service for Common Use of Hospitals (of the state business sector), said the president of the Union of Workers of the Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Industry and Similar Centers, António Baião, who was speaking at a press conference in Coimbra.
According to the leader, The strike is expected to have a greater impact on school canteens and hospitals????????
Negotiations are under discussion with the Associação da Hotelaria, Restauração e Similares de Portugal (AHRESP), with the union demanding a review of the salary table, increases, recognition of the seniority of workers and valorization of work on Saturdays and Sundays.
For Antonio Baiao, it is essential to ensure the “attractiveness” in this sectorwho also feels the lack of manpower.
Most workers, with the increase in the national minimum wage (SMN) in 2023, will earn this amount (the previous amount is “swallowed up” by this update), requiring an update even to differentiate wages between different industry categories. .
In the same press conference, the Union of Hotels and Restaurants of the Center also warned of the situation of “injustice” that is beginning to be seen in the transfer of powers to the municipalities in the field of education, with School canteen workers see their job in danger.
Faced with the transfer of powers in education from the State to the municipalities, the municipalities began to choose to end the concessions to private companies and advance in the hiring of personnel to guarantee the service, said António Baião.
“What is happening is that many of the municipalities tell us that They are going to hold a public contest and they are not going to give priority to workers who have been there for ten or 15 or 20 years“, he clarified, noting that this situation has already led to a lawsuit in Mangualde, which voluntarily advanced to the transfer of powers in education and which ended in a court ruling condemning the municipality to integrate the workers who already provided the service and who were effective. .
According to António Baião, this situation was not taken into account in the agreement for the transfer of powers in the area of education, arguing that the Government and the National Association of Municipalities of Portugal (ANMP) find “a legal figure to resolve this situation.” .
According to the leader of the same union, Afonso Figueiredo, the situation will tend to worsen in the next school yearsince most of the municipalities this year chose to resort to external companies, due to the lack of time to start directly managing school meals.
In a region with close to 700 soup kitchens and more than three thousand workers, the union leader warns of the legal problems that municipalities may face if they ignore the effective employees who already provided the service through external companies.
According to Afonso Figueiredo, these workers had “an effective bond, with the force of law, which was compulsorily transmitted to the company that won the contest.”
Source: Observadora
