Room assistants of the Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology (MAAT) demanded this Thursday, in a protest in Lisbon, effective work contracts, exposing a situation of supposed false green receipts in that cultural facility of the EDP Foundation.
Carrying signs with phrases such as “Against precariousness in culture”, “MAAT is coming to look for the fake green receipts” o “Cultural stability in Portugal is fiction and fabrication”, a group of attendees in the MAAT room drew the attention of those who passed by the museum, located on the riverbank in the Belém neighborhood, in the early hours this afternoon.
Carnation in hand or on the chest, the group, made up of young people, did not stop shouting slogans such as “Down with false green receipts” or “What do we want? Employment contracts! When we want? Now”.
Marta Antunes, spokesperson for the group, reinforced the statements of the 26 museum attendees to Lusa, “false green receipts”: “We want to be part of the company’s workforce, belong to the EDP collective agreementwe want effective work contracts”.
“We all do a job that has a contractual link, we sign a point, we wear a uniform, we receive direct orders, we have a schedule, we have a schedule that we have to comply with. We comply with all the characteristics of contract work, even though we have been receiving green receipts for years“, he told Lusa, noting that none of the 26 have even signed a contract for the provision of services.
Although they are aware that they are “completely unprotected,” Marta said, members of the group consider this fight “very important.”
“Not only because of our working conditions, that of our team and in relation to this museum, but also in relation to the entire precarious situation of Culture in Portugal, which must be talked about. And we know that it is already making other museums want to talk too, ”he said.
At the protest, organized with the support of the Union of the Southern and Island Electrical Industries (SIESI), affiliated with the CGTP, three representatives of the Assembly of the Republic were present: Duarte Alves, from the PCP, José Soeiro, from the Bloque Izquierdo (BE), and Rui Tavares, from Livre.
The three, in statements to Lusa, highlighted the importance of the struggle of these workers, showing their solidarity with her on behalf of their respective parties.
For the communist deputy, it is “unacceptable that the EDP Foundation, which is within the EDP group, which has millions of dollars in benefits that have recently been presented, have green receipts, which are actually false green receipts, workers who are a permanent need for the companywho work every day to guarantee the exhibitions and the visits of all those who come to the museum”.
Duarte Alves highlighted the “courage” of the MAAT classroom assistants, “who are in a precarious employment situation, to take to the streets to defend their rights”, recalling that “today is a very important day, because it is also a day of struggle throughout the country, in hundreds of companies, with demonstrations organized by the CGTP”.
“[No caso do MAAT] our solidarity will also manifest itself in confronting the Government with the need to guarantee that the rights of these workers are respected”, he said.
Rui Tavares highlighted the importance of “fighting precariousness”.
“They are qualified young people who work here, those young people who are talked about so much, who later feel forced to emigrate”he said, also underlining the fact that a company like EDP was at stake, “one of the richest in the country, which belongs to a state-owned company of the People’s Republic of China, which makes very large profits, which has increased its prices, Its prices have raised inflation, which is free of State taxes and which does not pay IMI in many of the municipalities where it operates in the country”.
The sole deputy of Livre recognizes the importance of EDP being responsible for “a prestigious project like the MAAT, a contribution to the cultural life of the city and the country, and even at a European level and beyond”, but stresses that such “It cannot be done on the back of the work of qualified young people, who are precarious.”
They must be in the photos. It would be a pittance for EDP to integrate these workers, have good salaries and good working conditions”, he defended, recalling that what is happening in the MAAT “is not a unique situation”, referring to cases such as Casa da Música and Serralves and admitting that there may be others in cultural institutions.
The BE deputy, José Soeiro, underlines the same thing: “the situation that happens here happens in many other cultural facilities.” “We understand that this situation is unacceptable and has to be regularized,” he said.
José Soeiro also highlighted the importance of the struggle of the MAAT classroom assistants and “the example they are giving today”, which “is very inspiring for all the Culture workers who continue to receive false green receipts”.
According to the deputy, BE “attempted to contact ACT [Autoridade para as Condições do Trabalho]that here he has the power to trigger an action for the recognition of the employment contract”.
“The law provides for it, and even provides that if in this case the MAAT does not regularize this situation, the Public Ministry has to go out into the field, to guarantee, through the courts, the recognition of employment contracts,” he recalled.
The MAAT, inaugurated in 2016, is part of the EDP Foundation ‘campus’, which also includes the Central Tejo — Electricity Museum.
Source: Observadora
