Africa-Press – Cape verde. The Santiago Union A União Faz a Força (SSUFF) denounces that Sonasa (Private Security Company) workers, among other benefits, have been without compulsory social security coverage for nine months. Júlio Nascimento, on behalf of the target company, says that the matter is in the process of being resolved.
Manuel Barros, the president of SSUFF, says that Sonasa workers are not covered by the mandatory social security due to the non-payment of the respective contributions by the employer, Sonasa, to the National Institute of Social Security (INPS).
“It is a very serious problem and those who are harmed are our workers, members of our union, because it has been nine months since the company makes discounts on social security and does not send them to the INPS, this has caused several constraints to the guards”, says. strike or demonstration
warns that if the problem is not resolved, the union that presides will have to resort to other forms of struggle. “Between us, we will meet with all the vigilantes to make a decision that will depend on them. If the situation is not resolved, this week we will appeal for a strike or a demonstration”, he adds.
This taking into account, as it reveals, that SSUFF has already resorted to several ways to solve this problem, without result. “We have already filed a complaint with the Labor Inspection and addressed the matter in meetings with Sonasa itself to see if we can find a solution; Sonasa told us that it has been negotiating payment methods with the INPS, but it has been nine months”, she says.
According to the unionist, this is not the first time that SSUFF has faced a private security company in this situation of non-compliance with its workers.
“The problem is not just with Sonasa, there are other companies that have also been in this situation. However, they regularized everything through effective negotiations with the INPS, so we hope that the same will happen with the case of Sonasa”.
Sonasa promises to resolve by the end of this month For his part, the acting director general of Sonasa, Júlio Nascimento, justifies the non-compliance, nine months ago, in relation to the denounced problem, with reasons of “financial suffocation”.
“The company has already been negotiating with its customers for two years to apply the indicative reference price, however, few customers pay this price to Sonasa, generating a great financial struggle”, he says.
“We were forced to update the workers’ salary scale, indicated since May 2020, without receiving the amount we should have received in order to be able to increase salaries”, therefore, “all this culminated in a certain suffocation in financial terms at Sonasa”.
In view of this, as he also recognizes, “a point was reached where we had to choose either to pay the INPS or to pay the employees’ salaries and, of course, we decided to pay the workers”.
With around 800 employees, Sonasa, according to its spokesman, believes that by the end of July it will have resolved the situation of nine months without social security.
“This situation with the INPS is practically resolved, considering that we have established a principle in agreement with the institution, there are just a few bureaucratic pending issues”, he says.
Júlio Nascimento claims, however, that because of the “absence of some people with decisive powers at the INPS”, so far, it has not been possible to conclude the negotiation, but that “everything will be resolved this month and all retroactive payments will be settled” duly .
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