According to the Ministry of Transport, a salary increase above financial possibilities "could put the company at risk of technical bankruptcy and, by dragging, imply the massive dismissal of workers", as happened recently with several world reference companies.
"This is a scenario that the Ministry of Transport rejects, noting that, despite the financial losses in the recent past, all the jobs of the national airline were maintained, without any salary discounts", reads the statement released on Friday.
Pilots of the air carrier TAAG started a strike on Friday, scheduled for 10 days, after negotiations to reach a consensus with the employer had failed, to whom, last June, an eight-point claim book was presented, with the first concerning remuneration.
The Angolan pilots' union said that the strike started on Friday is not just about wage demands, but "to relevant issues of the sovereignty of the country and the company".
"The pilots' strike is not limited, as is maliciously being propagated, to the salary claim, but to relevant issues of the sovereignty of the country and the company, as a commercial, social and cultural-identity entity", says a note signed by the president of the Airline Pilots Union (SPLA), Miguel Prata.
The ministerial entity says, on the other hand, that it has taken good note of and welcomes the contingency plan presented by the TAAG board of directors, which aims to guarantee the protection of all passengers, the company's most important asset, and minimize constraints as much as possible of the strike.
The State body, "aware that the interests of passengers are non-negotiable", reiterates "all its support for measures aimed at guaranteeing minimum services, whether on the initiative of the board of directors or the Union of Technical Sailing Personnel".
It also recalls that the strike, being a right that must be fully respected by all the actors involved, has corresponding duties, such as the guarantee of minimum services, "which are not being guaranteed by the union and which have a negative social impact in the populations of certain regions of the country".
The Ministry of Transport also emphasizes that after becoming aware of the intention to strike, it created a working group to monitor the process, held meetings with the parties and noted that the company was "clearly aware" of its responsibilities.
After hearing both parties and transmitting the necessary clarifications, he observes, the Ministry guided the board of directors to proceed with the necessary reforms so that the existing internal and external nonconformities are remedied in order to make the company profitable in the medium term.
The ongoing reforms, notes the ministerial body, have already allowed TAAG to start the process of acquiring six new Airbus 220-330 aircraft, "without resorting to any sovereign guarantee from the State".
They also allow him to foresee positive financial results from 2024 onwards and increase the number of passengers from the current three to five million passengers/year, he stresses.
And "because the Ministry of Transport is sensitive to the concerns expressed by workers, it has expressly directed that dialogue be maintained between its representatives and the board of directors, so that their concerns are framed in the implementation of the ongoing reform program", he says. if also in the communiqué.
The ministerial entity also says that it has guided the parties to focus on the need to "find together and with the urgency that is required" the consensus that allows responding to workers' concerns within the scope of the "financial limitations that TAAG faces at the present ".
The SPLA note emphasizes that the strike by Angolan pilots from TAAG, "is based on respect for the Constitution, article 51.º (Right to Strike and Prohibition of Lock Out) and Law No. 23/91 of 15 June, Strike Law, art. 10.º (Strike Decision)".
The strikers express their displeasure that the company's management is violating the article on acts against the principles of Public Administration, of the Public Probity Law.
"The strike is still in its infancy and the employer, trampling on our laws, has already violated Articles 15 (Prohibition of changing equipment) and 17 (Prohibition of replacing workers), of the Strike Law, as the hiring of means and personnel, mainly, these, without a work visa, are a true attack on the rules, which the ANAC [National Civil Aviation Agency], should not remain indifferent, nor be an accomplice", emphasizes the note.
