Angola Telecom workers declare strike from December 27

Low and outdated salaries, lack of a health plan and delays in the payment of subsidies to the National Social Security Institute (INSS) are among the complaints of Angola Telecom employees.

According to the secretary general of the Union of Postal, Telecommunications and Related Workers of Luanda, Lourenço Afonso, the concerns of employees of the Angolan state telecommunications company have been dragging on since 2017.

"It's a strike called for the 27th of the current month, this call for a strike results in claims whose response from the board of directors was not favorable to the workers, so at the general meeting held on the 17th of this month we decided to declare a strike," he said Lourenço Afonso, speaking to Lusa.

The Board of Directors of Angola Telecom has already notified the union to address the points contained in the list of claims, whose first round of negotiations took place on Tuesday.

"And, in fact, the employer is showing some willingness to negotiate the points, but the 'timings' they present are what we are going to send to the workers' assembly scheduled for Friday", he pointed out.

"Up until the assembly, the strike is still decreed, because we are talking about problems that we have been discussing for a long time, since 2017, and which actually never took place and the workers are angry", he stressed.

The union leader denies that the employer is in financial trouble, "as he alleges", because it has "know-how, well-capitalized infrastructure and stakes in several other companies".

Lourenço Afonso also presents the drama of sick employees who do not receive any medical and medication assistance from the company, stating that there are retired workers without their situation regularized at the INSS.

"There are workers who have died and their children cannot complain to the INSS, because the company has not regularized it, and there are a number of other claims. We are open and flexible to negotiations and we also expect this from the board of directors", concluded the unionist.

Angola Telecom, with infrastructure spread across 18 provinces, is supervised by the Ministry of Telecommunications, Information Technologies and Social Communication.