Ryanair cabin crew based in Portugal are to strike in August for at least five days, after claiming that the company had failed to observe an agreement reached with the union on complying with local labour rules by February.


In a statement, the SNPVAC union said that at a general assembly at its headquarters in Lisbon, Ryanair employees in the union voted to approve a stoppage “during the month of August for a minimum period of five days”.


Because of the length of the strike, the SNPVAC is looking at options for dates for the action, taking into account “the migrant community and the Portuguese diaspora”, to ensure that they are not “too penalised” by the impact on Ryanair flights.


According to the union, cabin crew have been forced into strike action because “the company has never fulfilled the protocol concluded with the union on 28 November 2018 in which it was established [that it would observe] mandatory compliance with Portuguese labour legislation by 1 February 2019, something that until the present has not been fulfilled.”


In practice, the union explained, this relates to the payment of holiday and Christmas allowances, the hiring as Ryanair staff of all cabin crew members with more than two years of service via temping companies “without loss of remuneration [or] seniority and with the same fundamental conditions of work and employment of the other members of staff”, as well as the allocation of the legal minimum of 22 days’ holiday a year and full compliance to local laws on maternity and paternity benefits.


The Ryanair cabin crew union said that they “do not accept that Portuguese law continues to be totally disrespected, and what’s more, with the endorsement of the Portuguese government by omis-sion” – a reference to a perceived lack of action on the part of the authorities in enforcing local laws.


“In view of the company’s lack of interest [from] and the total passivity of the Portuguese Government in guaranteeing fundamental rights to Portuguese nationals working at Ryanair, Ryanair’s cabin crew members have been obliged to vote for a return to labour conflict so that their rights are respected and fully met by the Irish company,” the statement concludes.


The latest profits report from Ryanair revealed a 21 percent drop in profits during the first quarter of the year. Michael O’Leary from Ryanair said: “As previously guided, Q1 profits fell 21% to €243m due to lower fares, higher fuel and staff costs”.


Faro airport in the Algarve is a hub for Ryanair so strike action involving cabin crew could potentially result in problems for travellers using the airline to travel to or from Portugal.


While problems at the airports appear to be on the cards for August, problems on the roads are also predicted thanks to the announced fuel truck drivers strike scheduled for 12 August.


Portugal’s minister of infrastructures, Pedro Nuno Santos, said that people should start filling up their tanks as a precaution in the event of a strike by truck drivers.


The government is doing its job to avoid the strike, he told journalists, adding that people should start to make conting-ency plans instead of waiting until the strike occurs when it is predicted that petrol stations around the country could once again run dry of fuel depending on the length of the strike.


Pedro Nuno Santos, assured that the government is “working” to solve the problems created by the planned strike, saying that legally mandated minimum services “will be on a very satisfactory scale.”


Santos said that he had not “the slightest doubt” that a “satisfactory dimension” of minimum services would be achieved during the strike and when asked whether, on contrast to a similar strike in April, a civil requisition will be decreed for the whole country, the minister said that the government is “preparing” for the situation and that “at the right moment” its decision will be made known.


Under an emergency contingency plan, a network of refuelling stations has been identified to ensure fuel supplies to the population, the security forces and essential services such as hospitals, medical centres, ports and airports, according to ENSE, the entity responsible for the storage, constitution and maintenance of the strategic portion of the national security reserves of oil and petroleum products. The plan guarantees that the country can function normally for 90 days.


While the government maintains that the strike will cause “minimal” problems, the armed forces and PSP police are already on stand by to help either with driving trucks or with controlling flash points that may occur during the strike.


A drivers’ strike in April led to a shortage of fuel at many petrol stations throughout the country.

Author

Originally from the UK, Daisy has been living and working in Portugal for more than 20 years. She has worked in PR, marketing and journalism, and has been the editor of The Portugal News since 2019. Jornalista 7920

Daisy Sampson