Drivers’ Union keeps strike in Funchal and challenges requests for minimum services

The National Union of Drivers said today that the request for minimum services decreed by the public company Horários do Funchal, following the strike called for Thursday, is not legal, stressing that no worker will be punished for joining the strike.

“The act of this order is null, therefore, if it is null, it does not exist and, when it does not exist, the worker [caso adira à greve] it is not breaching anything, even if it has been requested by the minimum services, “union president Manuel Oliveira told Lusa news agency, stressing that the strike will not be called off.

The public transport company Horários do Funchal said today, in a statement, that the minimum services, which must be guaranteed during the strike period, between 00:00 and 24:00 on July 30, 2020, are the ones that are “legally defined” in the joint order of the regional secretariats for Social Inclusion and Citizenship and the Economy, of July 27, 2020.

The company indicates that the decision was taken after “all the negotiating mechanisms” with the unions promoting the strike – the National Drivers’ Union, with the support of the Union of Road Workers and Metallurgical Activities of the Autonomous Region of Madeira – have been exhausted.

The unions demand the integration of the single agent allowance in the salary scale.

The payment of this subsidy was suspended between March and May, following the measures to contain the new coronavirus pandemic, having been replaced by another, of equal value, called ‘covid-19 subsidy’.

“Horários do Funchal will continue to use its best efforts so that minimum services are duly ensured, in order to cause the least possible constraint in the travel of its passengers”, reads the company statement.

The National Union of Drivers expresses an opposite position, stressing that the order is “illegal” and violates the Labor Code, which determines, in paragraph b) of paragraph 4 of article 538, the constitution of an arbitral tribunal for the requisition of minimum services, in the case of a public sector company.

Manuel Oliveira says that this provision has not been fulfilled.

The Horários do Funchal group, made up of public transport companies Horários do Funchal and Companhia dos Carros de São Gonçalo, employs 340 drivers and is 100% owned by the Regional Government of Madeira, PSD / CDS-PP coalition, under the tutelage of the Economy Secretariat, led by the centrist Rui Barreto.

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