The PS admitted to having changed the criteria for selection of concessionaires in the Public Procurement Code, after BE accused the Government of having “unequivocal responsibility” in the situation of the workers of the train bars who are on strike.
In a political statement in plenary, the deputy of the Left Bloc Isabel Pires pointed out that, since March 1, around 130 workers in the bar service of the CP long-distance trains have been on strike.
Strike in CP suppressed 198 trains of 1192 trains scheduled until 8:00 p.m.
The BE deputy stressed that these workers “are in a very worrying situation”, since the current service concessionaire, Apeadeiro 2020, informed them that “February wages would not be paid”, with March being “an unknown amount”.
For Isabel Pires, The Government “has an unequivocal responsibility in this drama”since “the use of external private companies” to provide the bar service has been a CP option, supervised by the executive.
“It is the CP and the ministerial authority that have to know the companies that provide this service. Incredibly, they always end up being companies that leave workers in a situation of permanent uncertainty, ”he criticized.
In the opinion of the Bloc deputy, “the outsourcing of this service and its non-internalization is a determining factor for situations like this to continue to be repeated.”
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On the other hand, regarding the current situation of the 130 workers, Isabel Pires considered that CP and the Government have “consecutively neglected the labor situation of these workers, when they had the obligation to guarantee that all jobs are insured and the rights are fulfilled”.
“It is unacceptable that the CP, a 100% public entity, do not take a hasty position and assume the leadership of the processsince it is the contracting body for these services and therefore chooses who provides the services, according to the criteria it determines”, he said.
Along the same lines, PCP deputy Alma Rivera questioned the PS if “it knows of any train that can circulate or travel for hours without drinking water” or without being cleaned frequently.
“Apparently, the Portuguese State understands that these workers are not essential for the operation of this service, because it does not internalize them, it does not have a contract with these workers, as it does with other workers,” he stressed.
Faced with these interventions, PS representative José Carlos Barbosa said that his party has been following the situation of the 130 workers with “great concern”. but recalled that the current concession regime is “more than 20 years old”.
The PS deputy stressed that this type of concession bids “have, often as a criterion, the lowest value” and admitted that Parliament must reflect on whether this type of criterion should be maintained.
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“This is not a CP problem, it is a Public Procurement Code problem, it is a problem that makes us all responsible for changing these criteria. which often leads us to choose companies that do not have the financial or technical capacity to win the contract,” he said.
In the specific case of Apeadeiro 2020, the socialist deputy stressed that CP “rescinded the contract”, will advance “urgently with a tender until the end of the year” and, during that time, “will study whether to internalize the service.” .
“That’s why I ask you: Do you agree with the termination, with the study to grant or not, or to internalize?”, he questioned.
After this intervention, the PSD deputy, Jorge Salgueiro Mendes, said that “what the workers want is to receive their salary” and not “to know if there is one more study or one less study” to decide whether to grant or internalize the service.
For her part, Isabel Pires highlighted that, in past legislatures, she presented reforms to the Public Procurement Code so that the lowest value was not the criteria that counts, but they were failed by the PS.
“So you can’t come in now and say they’re doing a lot of thinking about this model. We have 130 people, 130 families, who do not have a salary, and do not have dinner, reflection or a supposed guarantee that the Parliamentary Group of the PS gave here and that we would very much like to see confirmed: whether there will be internalization of these workers or not ”, he said.
Source: Observadora
