According to the coordinator of the joint committee representing Prodel workers, Fernando Pedrão Romão, the strike was declared at a general meeting held on Tuesday in some production centers of the state-owned company.
"The strike will be interpolated, the first phase will be during the 18th, 19th and 20th of April, but with a reduction in production, and then we will go to the other phase, on the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th of May, but still We remain with open doors for dialogue", said this Friday the trade unionist to Lusa.
Salaries for the month of March were settled "based on the unilateral table prepared by the company's management" and not in light of the table approved in a "joint and consensual meeting" of December 20, 2021, which established an adjustment of 19.2 percent.
"If he [the chairman of the board of directors] complied with 19.2 percent of the salary bill, as stated in an order, it implies saying that he has to meet our agreed salary scale, now he has given a scale that does not match reality", he stressed.
Fernando Pedro Romão also made it known that the employer and the General Labor Inspectorate attended the assembly that declared the strike of Prodel employees, warning of the "consequences" of the strike at the country level.
"We will comply with the minimum services, but the reduction of production is not ruled out", he noted, noting that the union has a meeting with the employers, scheduled for next Monday "to explain the possible consequences of the strike".
Prodel's management announced, on 14 March, that it had drawn up a new salary scale, within the scope of negotiations with the union, considering "there is no need to resort to a strike", as the workers intend.
"The truth, however, is that the company has issued a new salary table and, if this table does not meet the interests of the union committee, obviously we will continue to wait and continue to negotiate, at its own headquarters, which is the table negotiations", said the director of Institutional Communication at Prodel, Mariano de Almeida, in statements to Lusa.
The new salary scale, approved in an order issued by the chairman of the board of directors of Prodel, dated 11 March, and to which Lusa had access, distributes the company's salaries in classes A, B and C, distributed in the categories of specialist senior technician from the first to the fourth tier, senior technician from the 1st to the 3rd tier, specialist midfielder from the 1st to 2nd tier, midfielder from the 1st to the 3rd tier, general technician from the 1st to 3rd tier and auxiliary from the 1st and 2nd tier.
The salary of a top-tier specialist technician, in light of the new Prodel 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 Prodel workers, Fernando Pedrão Romão, the table approved by the public company "contradicts" the one approved at the joint meeting in December 2021.
According to the trade unionist, the salary of a top-level specialist technician, in the combined table, was between 845,000 kwanzas and 855,000 kwanzas, for a senior technician of the first level it was between 730,000 kwanzas and 750,000 kwanzas and for an average technician of the first tier it was between 540,000 kwanzas and 570,000 kwanzas.
The strike by Prodel workers should cover the hydroelectric plants of Laúca, the largest hydroelectric complex in the country built on the Cuanza River, between the provinces of Malanje and Cuanza Sul, Cambambe, (Cuanza Norte), Capanda (Malanje), Matala (Huíla), Gove (Huambo), Biópio (Benguela), Luachimo (Lunda Norte), Luquixe, Tchimbwe Dala (Lunda Sul), Mabubas (Bengo) and Lomaum (Benguela).
