“This employment contract (…) is a very significant step we are taking towards improving our working conditions, as it is the first collective labor agreement in the architecture sector. Until Sintarq was founded, there was no representative union for the sector,” Rita Amado, responsible for collective bargaining at the union, stated.
The union leader described this as a “very historic” step for the sector, pointing out that although there are collective labor agreements in construction, they do not cover architects because “the category assigned to architecture work requires a civil construction course.”
The Collective Labor Agreement, which received the endorsement of 50 architecture workers at a National Plenary in Porto, will now be presented to the Association of Civil Construction and Public Works Industries (AICCOPN), the entity with which the union is negotiating.
Laura Gaspar, another union leader, explained that today’s approvals included changes to the 2024 claims charter, such as “a new pay scale,” reducing the 40-hour workweek to 35 hours, and demanding 25 days of vacation.
“We had another year of discussion, from last year until now, where we met in various cities with members and non-members. We gathered within companies and in union sections, constantly adding new claims or changes to those we approved last year, always aiming to improve the document we have and are building. Today, we approved changes to last year’s charter and approved a new salary scale (…) to build a better charter,” she emphasized.
On April 14, unions representing the construction, architecture, and archaeology sectors submitted a proposal to the business association AICCOPN for a revision of the collective contract in this field, requesting a minimum salary of 1,200 euros.
Nuno Gonçalves of the Portuguese Federation of Construction, Ceramics, and Glass Unions (Feviccom) explained that the organization, along with the Union of Workers in Architecture (Sintarq) and the Union of Archaeology Workers (Starq), submitted the proposal for a comprehensive review of the collective agreement in civil construction and public works.
