Numa video Christmas messageMariana Mortágua stated that BE “does not forget” shift workers, who will be at work on Tuesday and Wednesday and, therefore, away from their families this festive season.
BE coordinator, Mariana Mortágua, asked this Monday for the signing of a petition launched by the party that aims to improve the working conditions of shift workers, highlighting the importance of their service at Christmas.
Numa released by the party, Mariana Mortágua stated that BE “does not forget” shift workers, who will be at work on Tuesday and Wednesday and, therefore, away from their families this festive season.
“When the stores and supermarkets fill up for the last purchases, thousands of people will be working in shifts. The airports will be filled with emigrants returning to Portugal to spend Christmas with their families. And there they will be, on the airstrip, in service counter or cleaning, thousands of workers doing their shift”, he listed.
The blockade coordinator also mentioned health professionals or the fact that many factories do not stop working, “even without any reason that justifies their continued operation”.
Mariana Mortágua asked for the signing of a petition, launched by the party last November, which aims to improve the working conditions of these workers, stating that a universe of around 800 thousand citizens is at stake.
“Many of these people will spend Christmas without their family, which means that many families will spend Christmas without them. We recently launched a petition to compensate those who accumulate the wear and tear of a shift-based life,” he said.
Os intend to include in the law that those who work shifts are entitled to a mandatory allowance, corresponding to at least 30% of their basic salary, the anticipation of retirement age by six months for each year of shift or night work (up to the limit of 55 years of age), two weekends off at least every six weeks of work and 24 hours rest between each shift.
A maximum of 35 hours per week for those who work shifts or night shifts, the right to exemption from shift work for pregnant or breastfeeding workers and workers with children up to three years of age and “strict criteria for authorizations for continuous work”, are other of the demands included in this petition, which has already collected 12 thousand signatures.
