Portugal’s airport workers union (SITAVA) agreed in Faro today the new groundhandling deal with Ryanair is "illegal and fraudulent."
"We are here today to denounce illegality and fraud," said Mário Reis, the union delegate from SITAVA representing baggage handlers from Portway, many of whom face the sack.
Portway announced in Lisbon that it is proceeding with the collective dismissal of 257 workers following the end of 'handling services’ deal with Ryanair at Faro, Lisbon and Oporto airports.
Ryanair wants to start using Groundlink which, according to the union leader, is a company that does not comply with the legislation for the sector, namely it has no license to operate groundhandling services at Portugal’s airports and it does not have in place a collective bargaining agreement.
Reis claims this is "fraud, because Groundlink announced full assistance in groundhandling services at Faro Airport, when it has no license to do so," adding that the National Civil Aviation Agency (ANAC) is complicit in the situation.
The president of Portway, Jorge Ponce de Leon, said on Wednesday that workers facing redundancy will be given the opportunity to continue working at the company, but in part-time positions and that in the Ryanair agreement these employees have priority.
Ponce de Leon unhelpfully added that if some of the workers facing collective dismissal stay at Portway with part time job contracts, the number of deleted jobs will be less.
Portway will no longer be providing services to Ryanair at the end of March at Faro airport, in June at Oporto and in October at Lisbon airport and the airline wants to use Groundforce as it is cheaper.
Comments
Had you bothered to go here first - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-hour_contract - you would have learned that the zero hours contract is very much a British, NOT EU, invention.
The dozen or so immigrants (NB: we are immigrants, not "expats") I asked here have never said this, and never heard anyone say it.
Evidence please, for the source of your figure. And maybe you can also tell us how many UK immigrants there are in Iberia. Just for comparison, you understand, or we'll all think you made up the "detail" in your post.
Ha ha! Yes it's a big giveaway.
As is attempting to quote the Daily Mail, that source of all truth and honesty.
I mean, have you seen its website? NO! Don't look - I suffered so no readers of this website have to!
One scenario is that Faro is an ex-military airfield that was later partly converted into an income generating tourism airport. Some baggage handlers were hired. Then more as demand grew. Then too many and now it is no longer a justifiable business expense as others can do it cheaper.
Or the other narrative is that baggage handlers were hired first - long before Faro airfield was converted? And the tourism flights were organised to find something for the baggage handlers to do ?
As so many expats are fond of saying - over 250,000 Iberians are in the UK on zero hours and, like flies round sh*t, they can't all be wrong!
But where is this Graeco Roman concern coming from? It is a universal descriptor - like Anglo-Saxon. Do any Anglo-Saxons have a problem with this description? Now bundle in White Anglo Saxon Protestants (WASP's) ?
Have our south European readers any problems being called Brown Graeco Roman Catholics ... if so - given the amount of whitening constantly seen in adverts and even elections nowadays in Portugal - Why ?
Yes, yes, the old "Graeco-Roman" giveaway......
Todays Daily Mail has 250 leading business people saying ...
Oh dear! What tosh!
The idea that these 250 are "leading" is laughable. As the BBC points out "Many, like Sir Stuart Wheeler and co-founder of Carphone Warehouse David Ross, have ties to UKIP and the Conservatives.
But there are no current FTSE 100 chief executives or chairmen and only 13 out of the 250 signatories are women - including Sir Rocco Forte's sister Olga and his niece Alex Polizzi."
By the way, your new (?) alias is a bit anodyne.
It is quite surprising that 250 "business leaders" (of big businesses per the BBC) are for Brexit as the EU is definitely beneficial to multinationals, not least by allowing them to channel profits via Luxembourg to avoid taxes.
Perhaps they see the damage the EU stranglehold causes small businesses who make up their suppliers, with over-regulation pushing up prices. Or perhaps they are just astute and genuinely care about the UK.
Todays Daily Mail has 250 leading business people saying that the EU regulations, in those EU countries actually correctly applying them 'hinders business and destroys jobs'. But the subtext being only the usual more developed EU states are.
Here we have an example of a leaner more efficient rival taking over from a heavily unionised ex-public sector workforce due to privatisation. Processing tourists baggage quicker and thereby allowing a future of more flights from more airlines and more tourists to come into Portugal. Rather than aiming for one baggage handler per bag.
With jobs still available at the airports but as zero hours part time contracts. Which will grow with demand. The UK has around 800,000 workers already on these - many from the other EU states. It is the future like Uber and airbnb and we should be moving with it. Not fighting it.