The arbitration court ruled that minimum services will be included in the strike of ground handling services at Portuguese airports, organised by the Portuguese Transport Workers’ Union (STTAMP) on 31 August and 1 September.
According to a press release from STTAMP, on Monday, a “hearing before the Arbitration Court to determine the minimum level of services for the declared strike” took place, in which workers from SPdH – Serviços Portugals de Handling (Groundforce) are participating.
The Court then ordered that minimum services be established “for all flights necessitated by critical situations involving the safety of persons and property, including ambulance flights, emergency services understood as declared flight situations, namely due to technical or meteorological reasons, and others which, by their nature, make in-flight assistance absolutely urgent.”
The minimum services also include all military flights, government flights (national or foreign), and “all flights that, at the start of the strike, were already operating in accordance with their original planning and whose destination is the national airports receiving assistance from the SPDH.”
It was also decided that “on both days, 31 September and 1 August 2024, for the Azores, provision must be made for the work necessary to guarantee the first landing and take-off on the route between the mainland and the Region, and for Madeira, the work necessary for the first landing and take-off between this Region and the mainland must also be guaranteed, in addition to provision for the work related to the first landing and take-off of the flight between the islands, in particular between Funchal and Porto Santo.”
Taking this decision into account, trade unions must now “nominate the workers necessary to ensure the minimum services currently defined 48 hours before the start of the strike period, and the SPdH must do so if it is not informed of this nomination in advance.”
The Court recalls that “the calling to work of those who are participating in a strike is lawful only if these minimum services cannot be provided by workers who are not participants in the strike under the normal conditions in which they perform their work.”
STTAMP says it regrets that “it had to reach this point” and reiterates that “the Menzies administration will have to take full responsibility for this strike because it has never put forward any alternative or proposal that could have avoided the strike”.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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