Almada, Portugal, June 25, 2024 (Lusa) - Between 70% and 75% of employees of bus company Transportes Sul do Tejo (TST), which operates on the south bank of the River Tagus, south of Lisbon, came out on strike on Tuesday, according to a union source, while the company puts the figure at 47%.

Workers at TST, which runs bus services in the municipalities of Almada, Seixal and Sesimbra, all in Setúbal district, are demanding an increase of €80 in the minimum montlhly salary and a meal allowance of €9.60, with the company offering €7.30.

A company source told Lusa that the company had already applied a 5.89% pay rise in April, backdated to January, and that "there are no financial conditions to meet the workers' demands, neither in terms of the eighty-euro pay rise nor in terms of updating the meal allowance to 9.60 euros."

In an internal communication that Lusa has seen, TST claims that it "does not have the financial means to pay more than the 60 euros it has already given to the vast majority of workers" but says that it is "available to pay the 60-euro minimum increase, backdated to January 2024, to all workers who did not reach this amount with the 5.89% increase."

Unions say that if there is no progress in the next few days, they will stage two more one-day strikes, on 5 and 25 July.

According to Sara Gligó of the Federation of Transport and Communications Unions (Fectrans), the unions may call a new plenary session of TST employees, at the latest during the strike on 5 July.

TST employs around 900 people and operates in zone 3 of the Carris Metropolitana de Lisboa, which covers the municipalities of Almada, Seixal and Sesimbra, in the district of Setúbal, all the Lisbon Metropolitan Area.

GR/ARO // ARO.

Lusa