José Sena Goulão / Lusa
Mariana Mortágua, deputy and leader of the Left Bloc
“We made mistakes that we regret and that we would have avoided today.” Leader of the Block explains the “special measures” adopted in relation to the contracts of two workers.
The BE coordinator acknowledged this Thursday that the party made mistakes in “painful process” of layoffs in 2022, in a message sent to members who asked for explanations about news that had become public.
“In a painful process like the one we experienced in 2022, when we had to end professional relationships with half of the people we employed, not everything was flawless and the Bloc recognizes this. We make mistakes which we regret and which we would have avoided today”, reads the letter sent to party members by the BE leader.
These explanations by Mariana Mortágua come two days after the magazine reported alleged dismissals of five party workers who had recently become mothersbetween the years 2022 and 2024, an article that has already led to a complaint to the Regulatory Entity for Social Communication (ERC) by the party.
Three of the 5 cases on Saturday are lies, Bloco insists
In the message, Mortágua insists on denying the magazine’s news, writing that “of the five published references, two are related to dismissals that the Bloc did not make (The European Parliament automatically terminated these ties at the end of the MEPs’ mandates, in 2024) and a third is the case of an advisor who continues to work on the parliamentary bench”.
But two other cases mentioned by the magazine, he highlights, “motivated pertinent questions from several blockers”.
The BE leader begins by recalling that the results of the 2022 legislative elections – in which the party went from 19 to five deputies – reduced public subsidies by half, which led to the elimination of around thirty jobs.
“These service commissions (or appointment positions in the Assembly of the Republic) ceased at the end of March 2022. In the exceptional case of two workers from the Bloc’s communications team, special measures were adopted considering their particular situation at the time of the extinction of the service commission and its positions”, writes the coordinator.
According to Mortágua, the jobs of these two workers were in fact eliminated “and only people who were already part of the team and who performed specific technical functions (IT, graphics, parliamentary group channels) remained on the team”, denying that these workers were selected specifically among their peers, nor subsequently replaced.
The coordinator also details that, unlike what happened with the majority of people whose employment ended at the end of March 2022, the agreement with these two workers established that they would be hired until the end of December, a distinction “motivated precisely by the fact that they had become mothers shortly before”.
Sábado said that two of the employees allegedly fired “were on staff and that, to circumvent the lawthe party gave them fixed-term contracts without functionsso that the ‘salary’ served as compensation”.
“It was an agreement and the party bought the silence of the workers so that the situation would not be known”, reveals a source from Sábado. These two women would still be breastfeeding two- and nine-month-old children, respectively.
Mortágua recognizes, however, that one of these workers should not have been contacted during her leave, something done “under the pressure of circumstances, due to the need to give quick answers to those who legitimately expected them and wanting to anticipate information in the face of meetings later held to organize the exits.”
“Right at the time, this error was pointed out by the worker and, before her, the Bloco management recognized the reason for her discontent and regretted having caused it”, the text reads.
Why not compensation?
According to Mariana Mortágua, several members have also questioned management about why additional employment contracts were signed with these workers, instead of paying normal compensation.
The party justifies the decision with the fact that, in this way, it ensured “the payment of a more relevant amount than that which would result from legal compensation and service commission credits” and, above all, “it provided eight additional months of income protection , by postponing the possible transition to unemployment benefit during this time”.
“This option did not harm anyone and was advantageous for the workers – but it is certain that the Bloc should have found a better solution for the same objective”, he recognizes.
“The difficulties we experienced in 2022 were unprecedented, but we went through them respecting our political commitments and we learned. That is why we respond with confidence, both to fake news and to the pertinent questions that address us”, ends Mariana Mortágua in the letter.
