LISBON: Lisbon Metro workers decided in a plenary session to sign the Metro de Lisboa Company Agreement that will regulate their working relationship, bringing an end to five years of negotiations, Anabela Carvalheira, of the Federation of Transport Unions (FECTRANS) revealed. “The workers voted in the majority for the unions to act as representatives in signing the company agreement with the Board of Directors,” said the union representative at the end of a plenary meeting.
According to Carvalheira, this agreement “in no way contradicts the laws in force, it just regulates some matters that were not regulated.” “It is a very significant first step. We have been fighting for a company agreement for five years,” she said, adding that the agreement was scheduled to be signed at the next meeting on 9 November. Despite this decision, the union representative said that the unions would “continue to fight” for other rights including wage increases as “the workers have not had an increase since 2007, and have had no career progression.”
