After yesterday’s tragic incidence when a restaurant worker, suffering financial distress after his boss failed to pay his wages despite agreeing to a payment plan, barricaded himself inside the restaurant where he worked and threatened to kill himself, the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) announced this morning that there are literally thousands of people who are unable to access any form of social security support.
Next to the headquarters building of the Social Security Institute in Funchal Edgar Silva, Regional Coordinator of the PCP, stated that “thousands of people are in a desperate situation due to the lack of answers from the Social Security services in the Region. With a worsening situation, many workers are experiencing ‘social asphyxiation’ and in need of help, but are hampered by a slow moving Social Security Service.
According to the PCP, thousands of layed-off workers are looking to access information that is currently being denied them by the regions Social Security. “There are many micro and small business owners who are pleading for answers about promised public support. Thousands of people are experiencing serious economic problems and cannot obtain answers to their requests for financial help and who cannot access the support programmes to which they are entitled.”
As Edgar Silva said, “the PCP defends the implementation of urgent measures and an increase and reinforcement of the Social Security system is vital to help alleviate this ‘extraordinary’ human need for help.”
Samantha Gannon
info at madeira-weekly.com
