Shift workers at the Portuguese Institute for the Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA) are on strike today, demanding payment for work on public holidays, which has been missing since January.
The strike could jeopardize aeronautical meteorological surveillance and thus hamper the regularity and efficiency of commercial flights, as well as general weather forecasting and that of seismic and tsunami surveillance centers, warns the National Federation of Public and Social Workers’ Unions.
According to the Federation, which called the strike, the stoppage covers IPMA workers with general and aeronautical meteorological, seismic and tsunami observation, surveillance, forecasting and communication functions, who work in shifts.
In a statement, the union structure explains that after a meeting with the Secretaries of State for the Sea and Fisheries, on June 19, the “Government still does not respond to the solution” of the problem “as well as the creation of the special career and the regulation of the prevention regime and its compensation”.
“Although the two Secretaries of State recognized that solutions must be found to the issues raised and that they would meet again with the Federation in the first week of July, not only did they not do so, but they simply said that the issue is not forgotten, but …”, the statement said.