"In the three plenary sessions held this Thursday there were only five votes against and just over a dozen abstentions," said Fausto Dionysus, adding that workers are also seeking a €1,000 bonus at the start of 2019.

"This bonus will be in compensation for the payment of work on Sunday as a normal day until the end of this year," he explained.

Dionysus recalled that Autoeuropa employees are to start Sunday working with the introduction of continuous working hours from the end of August, while the company’s board has ruled out any pay increase until the end of this year.

The workers hope, however, that the company will compensate them for the period through to the end of the year, during which pay for Sunday working is to be at the same rate as weekdays, with a €1,000 bonus at the start of 2019.

Workers’ representatives at the factory in Palmela, Setúbal, south of Lisbon, take the view that Saturday and Sunday working should be paid double, plus an extra 25% on the quarterly productivity bonus, if the plant’s objectives are fulfilled.

In addition, workers are calling for the taking on as staff, by September of next year, of another 400 casual employees, as well as a guarantee from the company that it will not engage in any mass layoffs during the term of the agreement, as well as an extraordinary contribution of €100,000 to the pension fund, to be divided up equally among all workers signed up to it.

The demands now approved by the overwhelming majority of the company’s employees are now to be submitted to the board at the next round of negotiations, which according to the Works Council are scheduled for next Tuesday.

Autoeuropa, which assembles people movers under the Volkswagen and Seat brand names, ships virtually all of them abroad, making it by far Portugal's largest goods exporter.