Africa-Press – Cape verde. The two unions in Cape Verde UNTC-CS and CCSL welcome the memorandum of understanding signed between Cape Verde and Portugal, with a view to safeguarding the labor rights of Cape Verdean workers who go to work in that country. As is well known, in addition to manpower for tourism, bus workers are also being recruited.
A “happy initiative” that will be worth it, as long as workers’ labor rights are safeguarded, consider the unions on the memorandum signed between Cape Verde and Portugal, cited by Inforpress.
Joaquina Almeida, secretary general of UNTC-CS, said, in an interview with Rádio de Cabo Verde, that workers will not start from scratch in terms of social security and added that there should be continuity for those who were already deducting for social security. society in Cape Verde.
For Joaquina Almeida, the memorandum should provide for “the total absence of discrimination, stratification or any other type of situation that will make Cape Verdean workers inferior”.
The president of CCSL, José Manuel Vaz, welcomes the memorandum that has now been signed, stating that it could be a way of discouraging illegal emigration, in addition to providing some response to the increase in unemployment and poverty in the country, in a troubled world moment. .
“Our businessmen have already seen that, effectively, with the salaries practiced here in Cape Verde, with the possibility of emigrating, the workers will leave the country”, said the trade unionist, who called the Government’s attention to more and better training.
better working relationship
Vaz, also said, that this memorandum serves to awaken Cape Verdean entrepreneurs to a “better working relationship with workers”.
The same is of the opinion that the salary announced for workers, who go to Portugal, must be defended in the memorandum, in addition to the guarantee that the staff will be registered with social security, both in Cape Verde and in Portugal.
He also stressed that the working day can never be longer than 44 hours a week, adding that all other hours worked “must be paid
in overtime”.
From Vaz’s perspective, it is extremely important to involve Cape Verde’s trade unions in the next stages of negotiation with Portugal regarding the hiring of workers for this country.
Ambassador warns of loss of manpower
Eurico Monteiro, Cape Verde’s ambassador to Portugal, considered, in a publication on a social network, that the emigration of young people to Portugal is good for the archipelago, but represents a loss of skilled labour, especially in the tourism sector.
The diplomat recalls that the Cape Verdean authorities were at the forefront of the Mobility Agreement project in the CPLP which, in addition to the practical results achieved with its ratification by almost all Member States, put the topic on the agenda for more than four years. , from 2018 to the present, “forcing” all political leaders in the community to talk about the subject and seek solutions that facilitate mobility.
In his opinion, Cape Verde did so consciously and in the conviction of not only meeting the expectations of the “great majority” of citizens, but above all in the understanding that a small country like the archipelago “gains relevance and maximizes” the its development potential in a “wider, broader frame of people, companies, civil society organizations, culture, science and technology”.
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