Most of the 42 workers the Ecco shoe factory wants to lay off gathered outside the unit’s Santa Maria da Feira doors this Monday and accepted increased compensation, but the union member included in the layoff is considering taking legal action.
“The company wants to remove union delegates and workers’ representatives and we cannot accept this, otherwise one day there will be no unions protecting people’s rights, and factories will do whatever they want, without respecting anyone,” Susana Bastos said. , who is an employee of the Aveiro division of a Danish multinational corporation and works there as a delegate of the National Union of Professionals in the Production of Shoes, Bags and Allied Industries (SNPIC).
The concentration of workers came after Ecco announced it was going to lay off 42 people from the samples department alone, which Fernanda Moreira of the SNPIC board said reflects a strategy designed specifically to fire Susana Bastos.
“In previous layoffs, the company first offered layoffs in a friendly manner, and then, if more people needed to be laid off, it chose among all manufacturing sectors those who had worked in the company for less time. This time, only people are fired. from the samples department, because this is the only way to get rid of the trade union delegate working in this sector,” Fernanda Moreira explained to Luce.
This alleged “retaliation”, according to the director of SNPIC, is due to the fact that Susana Bastos recently denounced labor and moral harassment by the management of the Portuguese unit.
It is the union delegate himself, who is part of the group laid off, who cites four examples of this harassment: Ecco “takes a close look at those who speak and behaves more confrontationally at meetings”, “controls what workers do on their social networks”, “forces them sign documents stating that they went to the toilet without the permission of the boss” and ignores “complaints of employees who warned the personnel department that there are bosses who beat workers.”
However, Susana Bastos emphasizes that “no one believes that this behavior is the result of an order from the top management of the Ecco Group” and states: “This is an abuse only on the part of the Portuguese leadership.”
Meanwhile, most of the other 41 workers laid off this morning have already told Ecco that they are accepting a compensation offer put forward by the company, which is willing to pay compensation for 1.4 months for each year of service to anyone who agrees to resign. this Tuesday, but according to SNPIC, after that date, “you will only pay 12 days for each year of exercise as defined by law in effect since 2012.”
The management of Ecco’Let Portugal contacted by Lusa has not yet commented on the matter.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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