The CGTP ruled Tuesday that the package of measures the government has proposed to mitigate the effects of inflation is “very insufficient” and “not responding to the structural problems facing the country”.
In a statement, the interunion said that the plan presented by the government this Monday, “it is not an answer to the structural problems facing the country and is very inadequate to solve the day-to-day problems faced by workers and retirees”.
The CGTP criticized the plan “which leaves the profits of large corporations and economic and financial groups untouched, which does not reverse the brutal transfer of income from work to capital that is underway this year, and which does not resolve worsening inequalities”.
For the intersindical, the inadequacy of the measures is notorious “from the outset with the granting of a one-off payment of EUR 125 for each person with a gross monthly income of up to EUR 2,700″he assured, emphasizing that “This amount, which is insufficient to compensate for the income losses accumulated in the first 10 months of this year, could ease the month of October, but it neglects that the needs of workers and their families are not punctual, but permanent”.
So for the CGTP “what the present moment requires is a real appreciation of wages”, demanding: “immediate fixation of the SMN [salário mínimo] in the 800 euros”like “the increase in wages of all workers by 90 euros per month”.
The intersindical asked the government to promote: “this increase immediately for employees in the public sector and for those in the private sector” and move on “with the repeal of the strict rules of labor law, namely those that have limited the right to collective bargaining, such as the cancellation or withdrawal of the principle of more favorable treatment of the worker”.
On the other hand, the interunion said, “the estimated payment of EUR 50 for each child/young person up to 24 years of age is lagging behind the increase in the prices of school materials or food and clothing, with the general salary increase being the measure that best meets the needs of the children of the workers”said.
Also on pensions, the CGTP defended the plan as “a sham,” noting that: “the advance fixing of the pension discount rates for 2023 corresponds to a change in the formula for calculating the pension discount calculation provided for in the law in force (and which has always been used when inflation was low), a change which is set at a time when the application of the formula would lead to an increase in the value of their pensions for all retirees, finally allowing them to regain some of the purchasing power they have lost over several years, and in this year in particular 2022, when there is a brutal rise in the prices of essential goods”.
“Without prejudice to the necessary compensation that must now be made in the value of pensions, it is unthinkable to promote a change in the formula for calculating pensions for the following year, causing permanent erosion in the base of from which the future increases are fixed.”underlined the interunion.
“The palliatives presented now ignore the structural problem that causes low wages. Workers need and demand permanent and sustainable measures”that pass “better wages every month, not just in October”insured.
On the other hand, “with regard to access to essential goods and services, such as electricity, gas, fuel, housing or transport, the measures presented are characterized by the possibility of leaving unchanged the colossal profits of companies in these sectors”defended.
Source: DN
