After last Tuesday, ANTRAM announced that the employers' association and the union had reached a social peace pact for a period of 30 days, the declarations issued yesterday by the National Association of Public Transporters of Goods came to overthrow this wake up.
At issue is a statement in which ANTRAM announced that the union would have given up the initial requirement of a base salary of 1200 euros to accept a base salary of 700 euros a month to which a daily allowance would be added.
This communiqué led the SNMMP to accuse ANTRAM of acting in “bad faith” during the negotiations and to send it to ANTRAM, the Ministries of Labor and Economy, ANAREC and APETRO (fuel dealers and oil companies associations) a Strike notice for May 23.
The values discussed
In addition to the fact that, according to the SNMMP, the values disclosed by the ANTRAM communiqué do not correspond to those addressed in the negotiations between the two parties, the communiqué released yesterday violates the negotiating protocol signed between the parties that prevented the public disclosure of concrete details of the negotiations until these ended.Subscribe to our newsletter
In statements given today to RTP, Pedro Pardal Henriques, vice president of the SNMMP, stated that “It is not in anyone's mind that the union would withdraw from the requirement of two national minimum wages to 700 euros. This is not true, this is not what was being discussed. What was previously agreed was very close to two minimum wages”.
The union's vice president also added that ANTRAL would have asked for a deadline that would allow companies to adapt to the salary increase, a deadline that would have been accepted and would translate into an increase in the base salary to 1010 euros in January 2020, 1100 euros in January 2021 and 1200 euros in January 2022.
As it is easy to understand, the values enunciated by the union are far from the 700 euros mentioned in the ANTRAM communiqué, having this led Pedro Pardal Henriques to affirm that: “There was a breach of trust and this puts the negotiation in question. We are not in a position (to continue negotiations). There is no climate to negotiate”.
ANTRAM's position
Accused by the SNMMP of acting in “bad faith”, ANTRAM stated that the release of the statement in which it announced that (supposedly) the union would have backed off in its demands “was not intended to hinder or harm the ongoing negotiations. ANTRAM is fully committed (…) to building a consensus negotiating solution with the SNMMP”.
The National Association of Public Road Transport Goods also stated that “it is fully committed to continuing the good business climate and the results obtained at the meeting”.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Infrastructure and Housing has already assured in statements to ECO that it is in contact with both parties and that "it will continue efforts so that the parties understand each other and the strike is called off."
Sources: Jornal Económico, Observador, SAPO 24 and ECO.