Workers at the Lisbon Bus Station (RL) carried out a 24-hour strike this Tuesday, starting at 3:00 a.m., to claim higher wagesaccording to the Independent Union of Road Workers of Lisbon (SITRL).

This will be the 13th strike by RL drivers since July of last year, with the most recent strike being on May 2, when an overtime strike notice was also filed for the month of May.

Speaking to the Lusa agency on Monday, João Casimiro, from SITRL, explained that The demands of the workers are maintained, that is, a salary increase of 750 euros is requestedin order to “compensate for the increase in the minimum wage.”

Currently, the average salary of a RL worker is around 700 euros (gross), while the national minimum wage is 705 euros.

According to João Casimiro, this time a strike notice was not submitted to overtime “so that the company has no excuse” to claim that, if strikes are scheduled, the workers do not want to negotiate.

The representative also said that the union did not schedule any more strikes because it was waiting for the company to contact them to return to the bargaining table.

Among the demands of the workers are also the update of the salary of the other workers in the same percentage as that of the drivers, the update of the food subsidy in the same percentage terms of the increase in the salary of the drivers, the reduction of the rest interval for a maximum of two hours and the improvement of the maintenance run.

In July, RL will join the newly created Transportes Metropolitanos de Lisboa, which will operate in the 18 municipalities of the Lisbon Metropolitan Area.

Currently, Rodoviária de Lisboa, a road passenger transport company, operates in the municipalities of Lisboa, Loures, Odivelas and Vila Franca de Xira, all in the district of Lisboa, serving some 400,000 inhabitants.

The adherence to the strike of the workers of the Rodoviária de Lisboa is between 60 and 70%

The adherence to the 24-hour strike of the Rodoviária de Lisboa (RL) workers to demand wage increases was around 60 to 70% at 07:00 this Wednesday, a union source told Lusa.

“The adherence today points to 60 or 70%, a little less than in previous strikes, which were around 80%,” the president of the Independent Union of Lisbon Road Workers (SITRL), João Casimiro, told Lusa, adding that “it is still early”.

News updated at 9:45 am