The Union of Tax Workers (STI) has scheduled for tomorrow, Monday, the 20th of March, from 14:00, in Funchal, a demonstration and strike against the professional devaluation and the collapse of the Tax and Customs Authority (AT). The initiative will take place in front of the Customs offices and is part of the nationwide protest promoted by the STI throughout March.
Although the AT, in the Autonomous Region of Madeira (RAM), only represents the Customs of Funchal – given that since 2005, the Tax Services-Finance AT-RAM are regionalised – the Regional Directorate of the union has allied itself with the national structure adopting ‘their grievances as our grievances.’
Since the beginning of the month, AT workers have been on partial strike – for the first three hours and last three hours of the working day – and have been carrying out demonstrations in various parts of the country, desperately highlighting the imminent collapse of the AT and the need for the profession to be valued.
Under the motto “Without workers of the Tax and Customs Authority, there is no Social State,” the national protest is a build-up of worker dissatisfaction over the last ten years, through the degradation of the profession as a whole and the retirement of thousands of employees, leaving the system to become inadequate and complicated thus placing additional burdens on already stretched taxpayers.
In addition to the collapse of the AT, this protest also aims to fight for the professional dignity of workers who find themselves within a regime that has become unregulated for more than two years, which among other problems, prevents career progression.
A further strike is scheduled for April, affecting finance services, inspections, and border control.
Samantha Gannon
info at madeira-weekly.com
Photo: JM
