The mayor of Silves today signed a Collective Agreement of a Public Employer Entity with the Union of Local and Regional Administration Workers (STAL), to allow employees of the Municipality who are unionized with this union structure to maintain 35 hours of weekly work and 7 hours of daily work.
The Chamber, chaired by the communist Rosa Palma, adds, in a press release, that “there is the intention to guarantee the extension of the effects of this Agreement to all non-unionized employees, in order to safeguard the equal treatment of all workers and, therefore, way, ensure the regular and good functioning of municipal services”.
The Municipality of Silves is the first municipality in the Algarve to sign a Collective Agreement for a Public Employing Entity, despite the recent meeting of the Intermunicipal Community of the Algarve (AMAL), the presidents of the municipalities have decided to form a common front to negotiate with the unions and adopt the 35-hour weekly regime.
Jorge Botelho, president of AMAL, announced, at the end of this meeting, that the submission of the request to the Government, a necessary step to adopt a system of 35 hours per week, would be joint, in order to allow a quicker deliberation on the part of the secretary of State.
«There were already some Algarve Chambers that were moving ahead with this process, but they will wait a while for it to be done together», had said Jorge Botelho. However, the Chamber of Silves, the only one in the Algarve led by the CDU, has already advanced the process.
Henrique Jesus Robalo Vilallonga and Hélio José Vieira da Encarnação, members of the National Board and representatives of STAL, represented the Union in the act of signing the Agreement.
The Chamber of Silves recalls, in a press release, that “the decision to enter into this type of Agreement results from the possibility provided for in the Regime of Employment Contract in Public Functions (RCTFP), approved by Law No. 59/2008, of 11 of September, namely in its article 132, which determines the responsibility of the public employer to define the working hours of its workers, admitting the reduction of the maximum limits of normal working periods, by collective labor regulation instrument».
On the other hand, «also the Constitutional Court, through its Judgment No. 794/2013, of 25 October, determined that the legal regime arising from Law No. 68/2013, of 28 August, does not prevail over collective contracting concluded after the enactment of that Law».
Last September, the Government launched the diploma that increases the hours of public service from 35 to 40 hours a week, but the Algarve authorities intend to take advantage of the exception regime provided for in the law, which determines the possibility of maintaining 35 hours, when there is negotiation with union forces.
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