Ground handling company warns of disruption by August 26-28 strike

  • Lusa
  • 25 August 2022

"Following the strike called by the National Union of Civil Aviation Workers (SINTAC) for August 26, 27 and 28, Portway warns that there may be constraints at national airports," the company said.

Ground handling company Portway on Thursday warned of the possibility of disruption of services at Portugal’s airports due to strike called by the National Union of Civil Aviation Workers (SINTAC) for three days, starting on Friday.

“Following the strike called by the National Union of Civil Aviation Workers (SINTAC) for August 26, 27 and 28, Portway warns that there may be constraints at national airports,” the company said in a statement.

SINTAC has called a strike by Portway employees at Lisbon, Porto, Faro and Funchal airports, beginning at midnight on Thursday and ending at midnight on Saturday, against what it said in a statement was a company policy of “confrontation and devaluation of workers via consecutive breaches of the Company Agreement, disciplinary confrontation, lack of salary updates, misrepresentation of performance evaluations that prevent salary progressions and bad faith in negotiations.”

Portway, in a statement sent out on Thursday, said that it lamented “the inconvenience that this situation will cause passengers.”

Given the probable impact on operations of the strike, the company also advised travellers to confirm their flights with airlines before heading to the airport. It said that information on airlines affected by the strike would be constantly updated at https://www.portway.pt/pt/media/noticias/.

“Portway considers that calling this strike is an irresponsible act, as the reasons for calling it do not correspond to reality,” the company’s statement reads. “It compromises the recovery of the sector and the national economy in a period of intense activity in aviation and tourism and certainly affects the company’s ability to translate the long-awaited financial recovery into better conditions for workers.”

On the reasons given by the union for calling the strike, the company stressed that it “complies with all applicable legislation and regulations, including the Company Agreements in force and the labour rights of its workers, which include the right to strike and the right to work in full freedom and conscience” and recalled that “remuneration updates have been made from the 2019 financial year to date which represent an 11% increase in workers’ remuneration.”

In addition, Portway stressed that holiday pay was 150% over the hourly rate, complying with “all the rules regarding the payment of holidays” and that it “favours safety above all and vehemently repudiates any accusation of compromise or operational easiness that could compromise the safety of its clients, passengers and workers”.

Finally, the company called for union members to comply with the rules for skeleton services for the strike period, as decreed by the government.