Saint-Gobain Securit Portugal workers will be unemployed this Tuesday
Workers at Saint-Gobain Securit Portugal, in Santa Iria da Azóia, Loures, today lost their relationship with the company and, as of Tuesday, will be unemployed, following the closure of the car glass factory.
After a long process of contesting the collective dismissal, announced about four months ago, most employees ended their relationship with the company, without having managed to avoid the closure.
“Unfortunately, today the end of Saint-Gobain was confirmed and the dismissal of 124 highly qualified workers who ceased their employment relationship and will become unemployed as of tomorrow”, said the coordinator of the Portuguese Federation of Construction Unions, Cerâmica and Glass (FEVICCOM), Fátima Messias, to Lusa agency.
Despite the negotiation of the terms of the collective dismissal of Saint-Gobain de Santa Iria da Azoia having ended on September 28, most employment relationships ended today because the seniority of workers exceeded 20 years, forcing a notice of dismissal of 75 days, remembered Fatima Messias.
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The union leader lamented that the Government has not been able to materialize some ideas that were discussed and that the objective was to use the facilities, equipment and knowledge of workers to install other types of production in the factory.
“It is true that the dismissal has already taken place, but we are not going to stop pressing the Ministry of Labor and the Economy to find solutions for these highly qualified groups with great professional experience,” he stated.
The decision to close the company’s productive activity and the consequent collective dismissal of 130 workers was announced on August 24th.
Over the course of about two months, the workers carried out various forms of struggle, namely plenaries and groupings to companies and marches in the outskirts or in Lisbon.
Concentrations at the Ministries of Economy and Labor and at the prime minister’s official residence were used as pressure on the Government to avoid collective dismissal.
Workers’ representatives met several times with representatives of these ministries, whom they have innovative ideas to avoid plant closure, but will not succeed.
The negotiation of terms for the collective dismissal of Saint-Gobain from Santa Iria da Azoia, Loures, ended on September 28 without an agreement between the parties and the workers, who, however, saw their compensation increased and some social benefits extended.
As a result of this negotiation, the company doubled the value of indemnities in relation to what is required by law and will maintain some benefits over the next year, namely health and life insurance.
This negotiation by the association that of the 130 workers at the factory, 06 relocated to a Saint-Gobain warehouse in Palmela, leaving the redundancy list.
The company had hired the services of a consultant to help find new jobs for workers to fire and pledged to maintain that support until early next year.
In Portugal, the Saint-Gobain Group employs around 800 workers spread over 11 companies and eight factories, with a total turnover corresponding to 180 million euros.