This week, workers at the Supreme Court began a strike due to low wages. Employees of Sonangol’s supply companies enter the sixth day of the strike.
Angola is the scene of two strikes that started this week. Supreme Court workers have been paralyzed since Thursday (17.12) because of the injustices they claim to be victims of. On the other hand, workers linked to Sonangol’s supplying companies are on this Friday (18.12), the sixth day of stoppage.
The claims of the Supreme Court began in 2014, but after six years, guarantees the coordinator of the union commission Domingos Fernandes Feca, nothing has changed.
According to the union leader, judicial employees have a salary equal to the employees of provincial courts, when they should benefit from the same perks as their colleagues in the higher courts.
Domingos Fernandes Feca says that the monthly income of the Supreme Court’s advisory judges does not match the number of “delicate cases” they have to deal with. “How is it that those employees who work the most are the ones who earn the least? Attention, they are the ones who work the most among the employees of superiors ”, he stresses.
“We are referring to this because the numbers of cases are eloquent. We have advisory judges with 400 cases, which is not justified. However, we have colleagues who spend more than 40% of their wages on taxis. That is not justified. ”
Imbalance in terms of remuneration
The workers’ wages vary from 120 thousand kwanzas (which is equivalent to about 150 euros) to 400 thousand kwanzas (about 500 euros). Domingos Feca states that in other higher courts the remuneration is three times that in the Supreme Court.
“We can say without reservation that the workers of the Supreme Court have a salary – if we compare it with that of other employees of the higher courts -, frankly, it is a salary of sadness and reminds us exactly of the situation we are in now”, he criticizes.
“This constitutes an injustice, hence our motto that the Supreme Court’s advising judges do not work without court officials,” he added.
The union ensures that the minimum services are taken care of. The union commission continues to wait for the response from the Angolan President, João Lourenço, and the employer who received the claim book. The Court has not yet ruled on the press, either.
Strike also at Sonangol
The claims in the Angolan State institutions do not stop there. This Friday (18.12), in front of Sonangol’s headquarters, a group of workers made redundant from companies that provide services to the state oil company is on Friday the fifth day of vigil against illegal dismissal and payment of wages according to the exchange.
Sonangol’s former service providers demand a framework in the state-owned company in compliance with Presidential Decree 31/17, of 22 February, which establishes the legal regime for the temporary assignment of workers from oil companies to the state-owned company, after two years of the contract.
Carlos Alberto, the spokesman for the workers, explains that Sonangol handles the processes. “In 2019, we received the documentation again for completion. Sonangol manipulates and creates this scenario. This dismissal was unlawful. Even members of the union commission were dismissed and did not respect what the law provides for the union commission, ”he said.
Indemnities
Speaking to Public Television of Angola (TPA), the chairman of the Executive Committee of Sonangol’s Distribution and Marketing Unit, Eusébio Vunge, guarantees that the companies for which the protesters concerned work have been compensated.
“In 2016, the country went through a profound process of restructuring the oil sector that gave rise to the National Petroleum Agency, an institute in the sector regulating oil products. And Sonangol itself started a restructuring process ”, he explains.
“In this context, contracts were canceled with temporary workers’ transfer companies and, in the process, these companies were compensated and, in turn, compensated their workforce and even the workers were compensated and the process ended at this point. “
However, workers deny having been compensated. “The director of human resources claimed that each of us would receive 50 thousand dollars [about 40 thousand euros], money that they confirm that they have given to the companies constituted by them”, she said.
“When we go there, the companies claim that the irregularities were committed by Sonangol. The companies deny having received Sonangol’s day. The owners of these same companies are some oil ministers and directors of Sonangol, among others ”, denounced the unionist.
