CRL / ZAP
Garden House of the Engenheiro António de Almeida Foundation, in Porto
The Fundação Engenheiro António de Almeida, in Porto, took legal action against 16 workers seeking to suspend the payment of seniority payments, despite its obligation having been recognized by the Working Conditions Authority, after an inspection.
In the action, the Fundação Engenheiro António de Almeida (FEAA) claims that it is not obliged to payment of seniority payments“because the value of the remuneration paid is already superior to that resulting from the ordinance on working conditions for administrative workers” not covered by collective bargaining.
The FEAA lawyer, Helder Costa Branco explained to Lusa that the legal action is not a initiative “against workers”aiming only to obtain legal certainty about the application of the right to seniority benefits.
Heard by Lusa, Paulo Marques Pinto, lawyer who represents around half of the 16 workers accused in the case filed by the Foundation, it classified the action as a “preventive” measure by the employer, which seeks for the Court to “say that these specific workers do not have the right to seniority benefits”.
Marques Pinto clarified that, although FEAA had paid “voluntarily” five years in arrears following an ACT inspectionwhat is under discussion affects both the seniority payments due (prior to 2020) like the future.
“If the Court understands that workers do not have a right under what the legislation is, the company will stop paying seniority payments which is currently already being paid”, he detailed.
However, he noted that the law provides “principle of irreducibility of retribution”, which may prevent add-in removal.
The action filed by the Foundation comes after a worker has brought an action at the Labor Court of Gaia, claiming the payment of seniority payments in delay from the year 2000 to 2019, worth around 30 thousand eurosincluding late payment interest.
At the end of the hearing of parties that took place this Tuesday at the Porto Labor Court and which ended without agreementthe Foundation’s lawyer explained that the action aims to “assess whether this specific worker, with his category, his seniority, the functions he performs and the regulations that apply to him, whether or not you are entitled to seniority benefits“.
The issue regarding payment of seniority benefits began in December 2024, when an ACT inspection found that the FEAA did not apply the Ordinances of Working Conditions (PCT) in the administrative sector.
These rules, applicable in the absence of collective bargaining, provide for the payment of seniority payments, the seniority supplement for workers not promoted for more than three years.
After being notified, the administration of the FEAA was forced to regularize the outstanding amounts relating to the last five years, which he did at the end of January 2025, paying around 120 thousand euros gross, interest-free, to 18 workers. Since then, daytime have been paid monthly.
However, in February, ACT clarified that it could only require the entity to pay seniority payments relating to the previous five yearsadvising an employee to go to court to claim the amounts owed before 2020.
Created by testamentary disposition of the Engineer António de Almeida and currently chaired by the lawyer Augusto Aguiar Brancowas officially recognized as a foundation in 1969.
It was managed until 2021 by Fernando Aguiar Branco. At the time of his death, the then president for life assigned the administration of the Foundation to the University of Coimbra, which appointed the current president to the position.
Throughout his 50 years, he has maintained an intense cultural activityespecially in the areas of literature, art, education and science, through meetings, conferences and debates, exhibitions and concertson your premises and outside them.
It also has a Museum where the various pieces collected by Eng. António de Almeida, since furniture, jewelry, textilesporcelain, paintings, clocks and coins, the latter made up of gold pieces of Greek, Roman, Byzantine, French and Portuguese origin.
