On the 30th of December, The Madeira Hotel Union organised a demonstration against the employers’ proposal of a 5.5% wage increase, with a guarantee of a minimum increase of 53 euros for 2025.
As a result of their offer, several dozen workers were seen demonstrating near the entrance to the Casino.
From here, the demonstrators marched down Avenida do Infante to protest outside the office of the Regional Secretariat for Economy, Tourism, and Culture.
In other news, a spokesperson for the Pestana Hotel Group said that only two employees were participating in the 3-day strike.
So far, only 2 employees of the Pestana Group’s hotels have joined the strike of workers who demand better remuneration conditions, namely an increase of 75 euros for all workers in 2025. According to the administrator of the largest Portuguese hotel group, Paulo Prada, there are about 1,100 workers in the 15 hotels in Madeira and 1 in Porto Santo.
“In the last information I received, (yesterday the 30th), we have only two employees who joined the strike, one at Pestana Casino Park and the other at Pestana Carlton,” he stressed. “From this, it can be concluded that the percentage of adherence to the strike in the Pestana Group is negligible.”
Although the strike will last for three days (the 30th of December to the 1st of January) and these are the initial hours, Paulo Prada is aware that there may be more adhesions, but “our expectation was already for a very, very residual uptake to the scheduled industrial action.”
Recalling that the Pestana Group pays “well above the regional and national minimum wage,” which it calculates to be around 1,100 euros in terms of monthly remuneration, and that “an overwhelming majority, I don’t say all, received 16 salaries during the year 2024,” he stressed. And, “we pay two salaries as bonuses, depending on the previous year, we share results with employees. We pay two more salaries, one between March and April and the other in November.”
As for 2025, “depending on the results we have this year, this is also very likely to happen.” A decision that has not yet been made, because it only occurs after the approval of the results, “but I don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t maintain what has been the practice in recent years. That is, to pay two more salaries to each of our employees, who instead of receiving 14 earn 16, depending on the participation of the results to which they, contribute,” he concluded.
Samantha Gannon
info at madeira-weekly.com
