“We are expressing our solidarity with Randstad employees who work for EDP, and with all those who have casual work contracts, and telling them that this is the important moment to [ensure] that legislative steps are taken to end this scourge," the CGTP's secretary-general, Arménio Carlos, told Lusa News Agency.

Call centre workers in the CGTP-affiliated SIESI union - some of whom have been working on a casual basis for more than 25 years - on Wednesday staged a strike in protest at the situation.

Early in the morning, several dozen gathered at Cais do Sodré metro station, from where they moved on to the headquarters of EDP and then to the parliament building.

“It has been a long struggle," said Carlos, arguing that it is not acceptable that EDP, “which has monumental profits and board members whose salaries are among the highest in the country”, is refusing to resolve a problem “that could easily be solved if the workers were taken on as part of the staff" of the company.

SIESI delegate Anna Catarino Romão said that the work for EDP was “false outsourcing" since people were effectively working only for that company.