Construction Union says there is no shortage of manpower in Portugal, but a good salary – Cm ao Minuto
“There is no shortage of manpower, she doesn’t come because she earns three or four times as much abroad. If she comes, we don’t have work for everyone”, said today the unionist at the SCP headquarters, in Porto, at a press conference .
According to Albano Ribeiro, in recent years there have been 300,000 workers, and currently there are 90,000 to carry out “public and private” works in Portugal.
“We still have 45,000 construction workers today. 90,000 workers were civilians,” said the official.
Characterizing the current situation of civil construction, Albano Ribeiro exemplified saying that “in the past, a worker who was from Amarante and went to Porto on Mondays, went to [para casa] on Friday, he arrived in a barracks”, and nowadays “takes a Ryanair flight and goes to work for Germany” along the same lines, but earning 3,500 euros.
As for the entry of new workers, the president of the SCP stated that “the sector is very aged and is not being renewed”, attributing responsibilities to the Government, “because it ended up with the employment centers where they provided training”.
“It is easier today to find a needle in a haystack than to find an apprentice”, he illustrated.
“The workers who can be for Portugal are welcome, but in their majority of qualified work”, considering that “the hand of the majority are not selected workers”.
“We have to qualify to build well, and safely”, he defended.
Another of the issues addressed was inspection, which led the union to ask the Ministry of Infrastructure and Housing, Pedro Nuno Santos, and the Minister of Labour, Solidarity and Social Security, Ana Mendes Godinho, for a hearing.
“In the construction sector we have a lack of inspectors. Labor inspectors are more conspicuous by going to the big”, the unionist, denouncing that, on the other hand, “80% of work accidents that happen, work accidents are companies where there are no go to ACT [Autoridade para as Condições do Trabalho]”.
For Albano Ribeiro, “there has to be a strong reinforcement of labor inspectors who intervene in the works where precarious and clandestine work is fed”.
“You minister to this issue, for example, the State is losing millions of euros per sensitive month”, which it will lose by millions of euros per sensitive month.
“The mafia networks, the recruiters of labor, the clandestine work, this has everything to end in the sector”, he told journalists this Wednesday.