The Ombudsman will ask the government and parliamentary groups to legislate on how to reimburse those who buy season tickets during the transport strike, Deco Proteste announced on Friday, following a response to a complaint.
The Ombudsman will ask the Government and all parliamentary groups to Consider refunding those who buy passes during the transport strike days“, reported Soraia Leite, spokesperson for Deco Proteste, quoted in a note from the consumer rights association, on the transport strikes.
The spokesperson highlighted the fact that the Ombudsman, Maria Lúcia Amaral, “recognizes the importance” of the association’s resources.
The position arises from the response to a complaint presented by Deco Proteste to the Ombudsman, demanding “the declaration of unconstitutionality of the current legislation by the Constitutional Court and the end of the legislative discrimination suffered by users of rail and road transport ”.
The justification for the request relates to the fact that Each transport sector has its own legislation.This means that users of road and rail transport do not have the same legal protection as consumers of maritime/river transport, for example,” the association explained.
For Deco Proteste, “season ticket and transport ticket holders must be compensated for a service they have already paid for but not used”, considering that this is “a right provided for in the Constitution of the Republic, and the compensation must be proportional to the number of days that the passenger does not use public transport”.
Government guarantees dialogue with railway workers to avoid strikes like the one this Friday at CP
The situation is repeated this Friday, with a 24-hour strike at the CP – Comboios of Portugal, which will affect rail transport users throughout the continental territory, and when several unions have already requested “train stoppages at least until July 14″. “. Recently there have also been partial strikes in Carris (Lisbon) and TST (south of the Tagus).
Faced with this scenario, Deco Proteste launched a campaign on the portal www.grevestransportes.pt, in order to combat discrimination in legal protection“ensuring that holders of season tickets and passes for all public transport are compensated for not being able to use them during a strike.”
The association suggests that users, on transport strike days, pay attention to the notices, especially on the transporters’ websites and social networks, to confirm that the strike is not cancelled, and to check if services exist. minimum and if they are viable.
In addition to seeking an alternative transport option, the user can request a statement from the carrier to justify the delay or absence from their work or school commitments and propose to the employer “if they can make up for the lost day or hours at another time” or if they can, where appropriate, work from home.”
Although there are no official statistics yet on public transport strikes in 2023, the association stressed that, “until July, only the CP – Comboios de Portugal was stopped for 98 days”.
“The official figures date back to 2022, when 65 strikes were recorded in the transportation and storage sector, equivalent to 9,414 unemployed workers and 13,979 lost work days. The data comes from the Ministry of Labor, Solidarity and Social Security,” he said.
Source: Observadora
