Infrastructure minister denies end of peace at TAP
On Thursday, the union representing TAP's flight crew showed surprise at a new cost allowance scale and spoke of the "end of peace" between workers and company.
Portugal’s infrastructures and housing minister, Miguel Pinto Luz, rejected on Monday the end of social peace at TAP, declared by the flight crew union, and said that the government “will not waver” with the company’s privatisation.
On Thursday, the union representing TAP’s flight crew (SNPVAC) said that it had been surprised by the presentation of a new cost allowance scale, which includes reductions in several destinations, and spoke of the end of social peace.
“The company has social peace today, despite this pomp and circumstance announcement,” said Pinto Luz, who was speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the conference “Portugal 2030: Strategic Future for the Construction Sector”, organised by AICCOPN – the Association of Civil Construction and Public Works Industrialists, which is taking place in Lisbon.
The minister recalled that the airline has positive results today and that the government “is very optimistic and will not waver in its desire to privatise” TAP.
“We will announce this to the country in due course,” he said when asked if privatisation could go ahead in March.
The SNPVAC said at the time that, in compliance with the terms of the Company Agreement, they had met with the airline’s management to discuss the amount of aid.
However, during the meeting, the airline presented a new table based on a study commissioned by Mercer. The table included a reduction in several destinations, which TAP intended to implement unilaterally.
“Immediately, the SNPVAC leadership, aware that this decision is the sole responsibility of the company, did not fail to refute this study, questioning its model, assumptions and even impartiality, adding that any change should include an increase in subsistence allowances to support inflation, the increase in the cost of living in the destination countries, as well as coping with the unregulated exchange rate in some countries,” reads a statement. But the SNPVAC’s objections don’t stop there, and could even go to court.
In the union’s view, “the company must realise once and for all that it is not a legislator. It can’t be above the law and it can’t discriminate against parents who want to reconcile their family life with their professional life”.
In view of this situation, the union goes further, announcing that “officially and unilaterally, social peace at TAP is over”.
The Portugália pilots’ union recently decided to go ahead with a part-time strike notice from 12 to 27 March and to submit a proposal to TAP’s management to change the regulations for external recruitment.