The Secretary-General of the Portuguese Association of Distribution Companies (APED), Gonçalo Lobo Xavier, does not anticipate disruptions in supermarkets regarding product shortages on shelves following the general strike scheduled for Thursday, December 11.
“We do not foresee disruptions, and much less such a scenario of product shortages,” stated Gonçalo Lobo Xavier in comments to Renascença.
Regarding the strike, Lobo Xavier assures that “retailers have their operations and logistics very well prepared” to “mitigate as much as possible the potential effects of a more significant adhesion” which, nonetheless, APED “does not foresee.”
For this reason, Gonçalo Lobo Xavier dismisses the possibility of empty shelves in supermarkets, hypermarkets, and stores of the more than 200 APED affiliates.
He even says the “scenario of store closures” during the general strike is “completely out of the question.”
The CGTP and UGT have called for a general strike on Thursday in response to the Government’s draft revision of labor law, which is being debated in Social Concertation and aims at areas such as parenthood or contract deadlines.
The right to strike is an inalienable right, with the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic stating that it is up to workers to “define the scope of interests to defend through the strike,” without limiting this right.
Nevertheless, the law defines “the conditions for providing, during the strike, services necessary for the security and maintenance of equipment and facilities, as well as essential minimum services to meet imperative social needs,” while prohibiting ‘lock-outs.’
Can the company temporarily hire workers to replace strikers?
No, by law, the employer cannot, during the strike, “replace strikers with persons who, at the date of the prior notice, did not work at the respective establishment or service nor can they, from that date, hire workers for that purpose.”
Furthermore, the task assigned to the striking worker “cannot, during this period, be performed by a company contracted for that purpose, except in cases of non-compliance with the minimum services necessary to meet imperative social needs or to ensure the security and maintenance of equipment and facilities, strictly to the extent necessary for providing these services,” with any violation of these conditions considered a very serious offense.
Which sectors are covered by minimum services?
The Labor Code currently provides that in the event of a strike, minimum services must be ensured “in a company or establishment intended to meet imperative social needs,” including postal and telecommunications services; medical, hospital, and pharmaceutical services; public sanitation, including funerals; energy and mining services, including fuel supply.
Also covered are water supply; firefighting services; public service facilities ensuring the satisfaction of essential needs assigned to the State; transportation, including ports, airports, railway and coach stations, related to passengers, animals, and perishable foodstuffs, as well as essential goods to the national economy, including their loading and unloading; and the transport and security of monetary values.
The extension of services covered by minimum services is, in fact, one of the measures proposed in the Government’s draft revision of labor legislation.
