Infrastructure minister to file criminal complaint against Groundforce boss

  • Lusa
  • 11 March 2021

A conversation between the two about TAP was recorded without the infrastructure minister' authorisation and made public. The dialogue took place during one of their meetings.

The minister of infrastructures will file a criminal complaint against Alfredo Casimiro, chairman of airport handler Groundforce, due to the disclosure of a recorded conversation between the two, according to a ministry source.

“Pedro Nuno Santos, will file a criminal complaint against Alfredo Casimiro with the Public Prosecutor’s Office,” the ministry’s official source told Lusa news agency on Wednesday evening.

The minister’s decision is justified by the “disclosure of a recording of part of a private conversation” between the minister and Groundforce’s chairman, Alfredo Casimiro, he added.

Around 500 Groundforce workers demonstrated today in front of the Prime Minister’s official residence to ask the Government not to let the company collapse and to find a solution for the 2,400 workers who have not been paid February salaries.

The protest comes days after it became known that negotiations between the majority shareholder of the ‘handling’ company, Pasogal, and TAP, for an advance of money that would serve to pay salaries in arrears and a loan of 30 million euros, failed, since the shares of Alfredo Casimiro are already pledged and cannot be given as security.

It is not yet known what the future of the company will be, but the workers fear that insolvency will be requested.

In a meeting with the Minister for Infrastructure on Monday, Groundforce Workers’ Commission and Unions learnt that Pasogal’s shares have already been pledged and cannot be given as a guarantee to receive an advance from TAP, nor for a bank loan with the State’s guarantee of 30 million euros, to meet short and medium-term cash needs.

The representative bodies of the workers were also informed at the meeting that the Government “does not rule out measures to save the continuity of the company, but also does not rule out insolvency” and that, without the guarantee of delivery of shares, there can be no injection of capital.