"We reached an agreement in principle. It's not what we wanted, by no means, we didn't reach the values we wanted, but they are the possible values presented by the company", said Miguel Prata, in statements to the Lusa agency.
The official informed that the pilots will resume activities on Tuesday afternoon, stressing that it was his will to resolve the situation so that passengers could start traveling.
"We thought it was good, while we finalize the details, that it can gradually resume operation, [starting] today at 14:00", he stressed.
The unionist highlighted that the associates accepted as much of what they thought was possible, and the base salary was increased by about 20 percent.
“Our base salary has only increased by 20 percent. Based on the financial statements we could not ask for more,” he noted.
The pilots of the national airline started a strike to demand better salary conditions last Friday, predicting a ten-day stoppage, after several weeks of negotiations with the employer, in which an eight-point claim book was discussed, presented in last June.
In view of the lack of agreement, the pilots went on strike, which in recent days has caused several constraints to passengers, despite TAAG having created a contingency plan to safeguard its customers.
The Ministry of Transport sent, on the same day, a statement stressing that a salary increase above financial possibilities "could put the company at risk of technical bankruptcy and, by dragging, imply the massive dismissal of workers".
"This is a scenario that the Ministry of Transport rejects, remembering that, despite the financial losses experienced in the recent past, all the jobs of the national airline were maintained, without any salary discounts", said the note, in which it was stated also that the management of the airline had agreed to a salary increase of about 30 percent demanded by the class of pilots.
The ministerial entity also welcomed the contingency plan presented by the TAAG board of directors, to ensure the protection of all passengers and minimize the constraints of the strike as much as possible.
"Aware that the interests of passengers are non-negotiable", the ministry reiterated "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".
He also recalled 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".
