Constância, Portugal, Jan. 8, 2025 (Lusa) - The Tupperware factory in Montalvo, Constância (Santarém), is not closing its doors today, as announced, and will continue working for a few more days to fulfil orders. However, the future of 200 workers remains uncertain.
"The meeting scheduled with the management [of the factory] for Tuesday has been postponed until Thursday [9 January] so we will continue working over the next few days, probably until Thursday 16th, to respond to orders," a company worker told Lusa on Wednesday, adding that the factory's closure “has been postponed” but that it is “inevitable”.
According to the same source, the factory "is operating normally and in all sectors (warehouse, order fulfilment and offices) to fulfil orders through existing stocks" at the factory, which are "plenty", with only the production sector at a standstill since last month.
For the 58-year-old worker, who has been with the company for "more than 20 years", the future is still uncertain and the company has yet to provide the legal and indemnity payments to the workers.
"We won't know until Thursday if they'll pay us what we're entitled to or if we'll have to go to a lawyer, which is an unfair situation after more than 20 years working in this factory," one of the employees told Lusa, expressing “apprehension” about his future.
The multinational Tupperware factory in Portugal, which has been operating since 1980 in the parish of Montalvo, depended wholly on its US parent company.
The parent company's insolvency petition directly affected the Portuguese unit and will leave the 200 workers who worked there, most of whom live in Montalvo, unemployed.
The mayor of Constância announced the news of Tupperware's closure on 20 December.
Sérgio Oliveira told Lusa that he was concerned about the possible closure of the factory because Tupperware is "the biggest employer" in the municipality.
"We believed until the last moment that this would be just another one-off crisis and that Tupperware would be able to turn things around and continue working here in the parish of Montalvo," he said, noting the concern of the families “who depend on the livelihood they make from the factory” and the lack of information from the company.
According to the mayor, "the [Tupperware] group has always had a very closed attitude about itself. It has never been very open to the community and to the workers who, at this stage, have little information about what the future will be, namely the guarantee of their rights".
Sérgio Oliveira said that the City Council has already asked the Ministry of Labour and Social Security to support the workers' rights to be safeguarded and guaranteed".
"There are some people who have been here for 30 years, who have always worked here [...] and who will now inevitably be forced to retrain"
Lusa has requested information from the management of the factory in Portugal but has received no response so far.
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