"The truth, however, is that the company has issued a new salary scale and, if this scale does not meet the interests of the union committee, obviously we will continue to wait for a written response and continue to negotiate, at our own headquarters, that is the negotiating table", said this Monday the director of Institutional Communication of Prodel-EP, Mariano de Almeida.
According to the official, Prodel-EP "continues to privilege dialogue at the negotiating table, as this is where differences are found and the parties come together", reiterating the need for the union to respond to the new salary scale.
"We are not interested in doing the ping-pong while in the press, we continue to wait for the union to come to the negotiating table so that we can find a consensus, which is in the company's entire interest," said Mariano de Almeida in an interview with Lusa.
Last week, Prodel-EP workers threatened to go ahead with a strike at the end of this month, if employers do not adjust March wages by 19.2 percent as per the 2021 agreement.
The intention of the strike was transmitted by the coordinator of the joint commission representing the workers of Prodel-EP, Fernando Pedrão Romão, criticizing the "abysmal difference" in salaries between managers and technicians of the company.
"What we are asking for is not a salary increase, but a balance between managers and technicians, there is an abysmal difference in terms of salaries, only the last level of responsible in our company can pay an average technician and higher and there are still 30,000 kwanzas left," he said at the time.
According to the union leader, the increase in the salary mass of around 19.2 percent was agreed with the employers in a "joint and consensual meeting" of December 20, 2021, but in a meeting of last February 24, the board of directors "did not recognize the agreement".
Mariano de Almeida, on the other hand, refused alleged breaches of the agreement signed between the union commission and the administration of the state-owned company in December 2021, insisting on the need for the union to return to the negotiating table.
"This is our will, there is no hole in the agreement or possible agreement established, I think there is a problem of interpretation here, the differences continue to be in the interpretation of the new salary scale and, therefore, for us to be able to find a consensus, we need to to come to the table", he stressed.
The new salary scale, approved by order of the chairman of the board of directors of Prodel-EP, dated March 11, 2022, and to which Lusa had access, distributes the company's salaries in classes A, B and C, distributed in categories of specialist senior technician from the first to the fourth tier, senior technician from the first to the third tier, specialist midfielder from the first and second tier, mid-level technician from the first to the third tier, general technician from the first to the third tier and auxiliary from the first and second tier.
The salary of a first-tier specialist technician, in light of the new Prodel-EP table, varies between 741,000 kwanzas and 859,000 kwanzas, for a senior technician of the first tier between 562,000 kwanzas and 596,000 kwanzas and for an average technician of the first tier between 390,000 kwanzas and 425,000 kwanzas.
For the coordinator of the joint committee representing the workers of Prodel-EP, Fernando Pedrão Romão, the aforementioned table approved by the Angolan public company "contradicts" the one approved at the joint meeting in December 2021.
According to the trade unionist, the salary of a top-ranking specialist technician, in the combined table, was between 845,000 kwanzas and 855,000 kwanzas, for a senior technician of the first rank it was between 730,000 kwanzas and 750,000 kwanzas and for an average technician of the first rank it was between 540,000 kwanzas and 570,000 kwanzas.
In this way, notes Fernando Pedrão Romão, the employer's salary scale "violates the agreements of December 20, 2021, because this new scale was approved unilaterally".
"We reiterate that we will continue with our positions, we will send this Monday an assembly request for the decision of the strike declaration", said this Monday the unionist.
Asked whether the new salary scale converges with the 19.2 percent increase, as agreed in 2021, Mariano de Almeida said that the aforementioned percentage "does not correspond to a linear increase in salaries" at the public company level.
"What is being negotiated, in the first instance, is the difference between the salaries of managers and workers, fundamentally with regard to the salaries of senior technicians and middle technicians, it is not a linear 19.2 percent", he said.
"We are here facing a situation that is one of interpretation to the approximation of the parties, that is, we have the difficulty of interpreting this new salary table released by the company, so we wait for the union to present its rationale arguments", he stressed.
Regarding the implications of a strike at the company that produces electricity for Angola, the director of the Institutional Communication office of Prodel-EP considered that, despite being a worker's right, "it will not be necessary to resort to strike".
The strike law "establishes the creation of minimum services, the strike does not presuppose the stoppage of machines, it is necessary to ensure the normal functioning of the company and, obviously, it is a right that assists the workers".
"But we think that it will not be necessary to resort to a strike", concluded Mariano de Almeida.
The claim of Prodel-EP workers has already been sent to the President, João Lourenço, to the office of the Minister of Energy and Water, to the company's board of directors, the unions, the parliament and the Ombudsman's Office.
