The PCP considers that it is still possible to stop the labour package, “as has happened in the past with other offensives against workers’ rights.” The party was out and about in Funchal, warning workers that their rights are being eroded in front of their eyes as the PSD/CDS Government plans to further deregulate working hours, removing rights, stability, and predictability from the families of those who work.” Â
Ricardo Lume pointed out that the deregulation of working hours is already one of the main problems faced by thousands of workers. “More and more workers are treated like machines, with no personal life, no time for family, and no right to rest,” said the PCP leader.
As he explains, through the labour package, the PSD/CDS government “seeks to give employers more power to dispose of workers’ time, extending hours and promoting unpaid work through the implementation of hour banks.’
The party indicates that, even before the approval of this package, there are already situations in which public and private entities penalise workers through mechanisms similar to hidden hour banks. “A clear example is what happens at the Caniçal Fish Market, where the workers’ lunch hours were increased from one hour to an hour and a half, forcing workers to work two and a half hours on Saturdays, without these hours being paid as overtime, as was the case before,” he illustrates.
Ricardo Lume indicates that, in practice, it means that workers do not have any benefit from the increase in the lunch break, “continue to come and go at the same time, start working longer on Saturdays without additional pay, bear the costs associated with one more day of work, and have less time for family and social life.”
“The application of the hour banks, whether individual or group, represents a huge setback in labour rights. It destroys the stability of family life and transforms the worker into a mere instrument of production.” Ricardo Lume
In addition, he recalled that workers live off their wages. “When a worker goes to pay his bills or shop at the supermarket, he pays in cash and not ‘in time.’ Hour banks will be used to replace the payment of overtime with time, harming the worker who often relies on overtime to supplement low wages,” he said.
“It was with the struggle of the workers that the offensive of the PSD/CDS and the troika against labour rights was defeated. It will also be with the struggle that we will wage this policy of exploitation and impoverishment and defeat the Government’s labour package,” declares the communist leader.
Samantha Gannon
info at madeira-weekly.com
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