Lisbon, March 3, 2025 (Lusa) - Workers at the Lisbon region transport operator, Carris, have decided to change the 24-hour strike originally planned for the 11th of March to the 18th of March because the company's management considered the advance notice to be illegal, as it didn't meet the 10 working days requirement.
In a statement, the Union of Road and Urban Transport Workers of Portugal (STRUP/Fectrans) said that the Carris Board of Directors, ‘in desperation’, argued at the meeting at the Directorate-General for Employment and Labour Relations on Thursday to define the minimum services that Carnival Day did not count as a working day.
"The truth is that, for legal purposes, it is not an official holiday and, if we count the 24th of February, the day on which the notice was given, until the 10th of March, we have 11 days," says the STRUP note.
However, the union decided that "there's no point in wasting time arguing about counting time", so it withdrew the strike notice for 11 March and handed in a new 24-hour strike notice for 18 March.
The union believes it is more important to "unite all workers in building a great day of action" and not "waste time on arguments and counter-arguments regarding the illegality or legality of the strike for 11 March".
A new general plenary meeting is also scheduled for the 18th for the workers to decide on the "continuation of ways to get the CA [Board of Directors] and its shareholder, the Lisbon city council, to give the answers that the workers need".
According to STRUP, the workers want "a real and substantial increase in salaries and meal allowances, a phased move towards a 35-hour week and the creation of a compensatory allowance for workers in the fixed sectors".
In addition, the union wants "the payment of travelling expenses for traffic workers without counting “bonuses”’.
The strike was approved after a ‘highly united’ plenary session held at Santo Amaro Station in Lisbon.
"The STRUP gave body and voice to the decision taken by the workers at the last general plenary (...) regarding the reformulation of its proposal on pecuniary matters, presenting the proposal of a €90 increase in salaries, with effect from January and an interim increase of €30, with effect from July, as well as an increase in the meal allowance to €12.50," the document reads.
For STRUP, "it is completely unacceptable that the board of directors should maintain the so-called ‘excellence bonus’ instead of adding it to the pay scale".
According to the union, despite completely rejecting the proposal presented, the company was unable to "refute the simple fact that workers’ salaries are getting closer and closer to the evolution of the national minimum wage and that, in order for workers to maintain the same difference that existed in 2009 with the minimum wage, it would be necessary to have a salary increase this year of €196".
"We are not therefore ‘asking for worlds and depths’, but rather framing the demand in the table of the other proposals," STRUP emphasised in the document.
RCP/AYLS // AYLS
Lusa
