In an interview, a spokesperson for the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) stated that, according to a national study, “one in six people work shifts and that 11% of these work at night. It is estimated that in the region this figure is higher due to the high percentage of people working in the tourism and health industry.
In order to improve working conditions and minimise the negative impact of working night/dawn shifts the PCP has submitted a draft resolution that recommends to the Regional Government the preparation of a regional study on shift and night work and its impacts on the lives of workers in the region and of their families.”
“The principle and the law must therefore start from affirming the exceptionality of night work. For years, the PCP has been insisting on the urgency of limiting night and shift work to situations that are technically and socially justified.”
For the PCP, shift and night work should be the exception and not the rule, so the party defends the following measures to defend workers: “limitation of night and shift work to duly justified situations; fixation of night work between 8:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m.; set a minimum amount of the shift allowance at 25% of the salary; exemption from shift work for pregnant women and mothers with underage children; bringing forward the retirement age for shift work; and the right to leave the shift regime, moving to daytime hours, after 20 years of work in this regime or 55 years of age.”
Samantha Gannon
info at madeira-weekly.com
