Representatives of the Algarve's hotel workers went out again in protest, this Thursday, August 19th, in Faro, to demand increases in wages and denounce what they consider an "employer boycott" of this happening.
About two dozen people participated in this "symbolic action", which aimed to "publicly denounce the situation that workers in this sector, in hotels, tourism, restaurants, are experiencing", he revealed to Sul Informação Tiago Jacinto, coordinator of the Algarve Hotelaria Union.
"For several years, tourism and hotel workers have had their salaries frozen, due to the blockade that employers' associations have made to the revision of salary scales," he added.
At yesterday's protest, protesters initially took up banners and posters with phrases such as "We demand better wages" and "We have the right to a decent life", to later make their way to the headquarters of the Association of Hoteliers and Similar Industries of the Algarve (AIHSA) and the Algarve Tourism Region to deliver a motion.
According to Tiago Jacinto, the alleged blockade of employer associations “is leading to more and more workers already receiving the national minimum wage. And that we cannot accept».
The union figures, which appear in the motion delivered to AIHSA and RTA and which will be "sent to the Association of Hotels and Touristic Enterprises of the Algarve (AHETA)", indicate that, currently, there are "approximately 80%" of workers to receive minimum wage in the sector, making the hotel industry the area «that pays the lowest wages in Portugal».
"Only between 2011 and 2019, hotel income increased by 124%, while the average basic remuneration of workers increased by only 4%, while the inflation rate was around 10%", reads if on the motion.
"In most companies, workers' rights are not being fulfilled, namely in relation to the payment of days off, holidays, overtime, allowance for failures, among others, such as the right to enjoy 25 working days of vacation", summarizes the same document.
The union coordinator reinforces, saying that there is "an attempt by employers to introduce the deregulation of full working hours, the bank of hours, adaptability, so as not to pay overtime."
In addition to this, there is the intention to "reduce the payment for work on a holiday or not pay this work at all, to make that day a normal working day", as well as to "decrease from two to just one day of rest " weekly.
The union's relations with the two main associations in the sector, in the Algarve, AIHSA and AHETA, are very different.
“We only have a collective work contract with AIHSA, which was the first employers' association here in the region, and we have had it since forever. But, in the last 13 years, it was only in 3 years that an agreement was reached, the AIHSA was available to review the salary scale and the other clauses», summarized Tiago Jacinto.
The last salary update «was in 2018». Even taking into account that, in the meantime, the pandemic emerged, the «large employers and also some medium-sized companies had access to public support and the profits of previous years assured», so now there are conditions to renegotiate, the unionists believe.
"We made a proposal for a collective labor contract in 2019, but the position of both AHETA and AIHSA is that they only admit to giving a salary increase in exchange for the withdrawal of rights. And that we cannot accept. There is a permanent blackmail here on the unions, on the workers, to accept losing the rights that were hard won over the years», he said.
Elidérico Viegas, president of AHETA, considers this position "perfectly disproportionate and inappropriate", considering that the association he heads "never refused to negotiate".
“They sent us a proposal and we returned a counterproposal, to which we never got a response. The ball is in their court», he said.
As for the accusations of loss of rights, Elidérico Viegas says that the proposal made to the Algarve Hotelaria Union, linked to the CGTP, has the same conditions as those in force «25 years ago» with SITESE, the other union in this sector, linked to to UGT.
The same official assures, even, that the union that was in protest today "only recently showed interest in negotiating" a collective work contract with AHETA and that "the meetings have been canceled by their initiative".
But the union is not just pointing the finger at business associations.
“There is also a responsibility here for the Government, which we want to alert. The burdensome norms of the labor code that were introduced by the various Governments, namely by the current Socialist Party, are encouraging the employers to carry out this blockade», accused Tiago Jacinto.
At issue is the expiry of collective labor contracts, whenever there is a certain period of deadlock in negotiations between workers and companies, which, in the view of the union leader, gives employers an asset “to blackmail workers”.
“This needs to be changed and that is what we are here to complain about. On the one hand, that employers' associations in the region are open so that we can negotiate the improvement of wages and working conditions. On the other hand, to demand the Government and the Assembly of the Republic to take the necessary measures to revoke these burdensome norms that are supporting this employer boycott”, summarized Tiago Jacinto.
Photos: Hugo Rodrigues | Sul Informação
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