According to the president of the Endiama workers union, Pedro Muxito, better working conditions and salary increases are some of the points in the claim list, which has been known to the employer since 2018.
Pedro Muxito said that senior staff are at stake, most of whom are licensed geoscience engineers, with more than two decades at the company, who are demanding improvements.
The union leader referred that the company allegedly "is divided", with the heads of departments being privileged, while "the others are not seen or considered".
"Miser salaries, there is no base salary, each one enters, is a relative or I looked like a guy (...), there is no performance evaluation of careers, but in the company's internal regulations there is. How does the second company from the country doesn't have a performance qualifier? You spend 20 years in the company and you don't know if you are a first, second or third engineer. The person has arrived now, he came with a letter, he is a director and with a salary of eight million kwanzas "he lamented.
The union leader said that if the strike starts, it will be a total stoppage of work, showing openness and willingness to negotiate with the employer, of which they consider themselves partners.
Pedro Muxito also said that the company is not complying with the presidential decree on measures to prevent covid-19, which establishes a 50 percent presence-based workforce, based on rotation.
"They sent everyone home in telecommuting mode, but there are no conditions, no one has a laptop," he said.
According to Pedro Muxito, the current premises of Endiama, in Luanda, have structural problems, due to their long existence and lack of maintenance, so, supposedly, two floors were rented in the De Beers building, where the construction is being carried out. diamond marketing, to "take some workers with their bosses and the rest go home."
The union representative stressed that this is the main concern raised in the claim section, suggesting that Endiama acquire or rent a new building for the transfer of all workers.
"There are so many buildings that the PGR [Attorney General's Office] confiscated, so rent these buildings, Endiama is a state company, rent yourself and put all the staff there, rotate at 50 percent, but No. They want to send all the old people home and they say they're going to get a Chinese company to rehabilitate the building, make a two-year contract with the people, but if we already have an indefinite contract now, are they going to make a two-year contract? But what is this?" he asked.
The lack of money, continued Pedro Muxito, has been alleged by the employer, but new people continue to be included in the company and "two weeks ago they bought 101 vehicles for department heads, top-of-the-range cars".
Pedro Muxito also complained about the fact that directors who have retired for five, seven years, are still in the company "earning at the institute [social security] and at the company", while "they send young people to the streets".
"This in all directions, they are friends, they are godparents, but the simple worker who still has a month to leave, the street, goes into retirement," he pointed out.
Workers also demand that wages be updated to the current exchange rate of the Banco Nacional de Angola dollar, respecting the indexation law, noting that their purchasing power has fallen 20 times due to inflation.
