TO UNDERSTAND THE MPLA, JUST LOOK AT PORTUGAL

Yet another scandal involving a member of the Portuguese socialist government. Alexandra Reis, the new Secretary of State for the Treasury, received compensation from TAP of 500,000 euros for early and voluntary termination of functions. Four months later she was named president of NAV, a similarly public company. In fact, the MPLA had and continues to have good masters.

E then in the Lusitanian kingdom to the North, but increasingly to the South, of Morocco, the PSD criticized the payment by TAP of a compensation of 500 thousand euros to the Secretary of State for the Treasury for the voluntary early termination of the position of executive director. In turn, the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, refused to comment on the “concrete” case. “I will see if it makes sense or not to comment on the case in the abstract”, he pointed out.

The social-democratic vice-president Paulo Rios considered that “not even at Christmas the gifts from Minister Pedro Nuno Santos are good”.

“Correio da Manhã” reported in this Saturday’s edition that the new Secretary of State for the Treasury, Alexandra Reis, received compensation in the amount of 500 thousand euros for leaving in advance the position of executive director of the Portuguese airline, when she still had to comply duties for two years.

“In addition to a set of less noticeable, less perceived, more hasty, even irresponsible acts, we now have on TAP, always TAP, the news of an administrator who allowed himself to leave and was compensated”, completed the PSD deputy .

For Paulo Rios, “this half a million euros does not belong to the minister”, “it belongs to the Portuguese”. TAP, on the other hand, “is always the result of bad news and the repeated way in which decisions are rushed is frightening”.

Alexandra Reis took office as Secretary of State for the Treasury in the last government reshuffle. She joined TAP in September 2017 and three years later was appointed administrator of the airline. She earned €245,000 gross per year, which corresponded to a salary of €17,500 per month. The compensation (theft) concerns the approximately two years of the term that, voluntarily, Alexandra Reis did not fulfill on the executive committee of TAP.

The now ruler resigned in February and in June was appointed by the Government for the presidency of Navegação Aérea de Portugal (NAV).

It should be remembered that the Union of Aviation and Airport Workers (Sitava) in Portugal defended in August this year that the results of TAP, which reduced losses to 202.1 million euros in the first half, show that only the sacrifice of workers contributes to recovery. That’s right, Alexandra Reis will say today.

“According to the information provided, the only item of costs that stands out, because it is negative, are personnel costs, which decreased by 7.2%”, began by pointing out the union, in a statement sent to the media.

Adding to inflation, which, he pointed out, has already caused a cut in real wages of 5%, it is “very clearly demonstrated by this presentation that it is only the workers who are, with their sacrifice, contributing to recovering the company”.

Sitava recalled that workers continue with wage cuts, as part of the airline’s restructuring plan, despite “increasingly demanding workloads”, which accentuates “an enormous sense of injustice that borders on humiliation”. To give 500 thousand euros to Alexandra Reis, someone has to scream, in general the Portuguese and in particular the workers of TAP, a public company.

In addition, the union said that “there is increasing evidence of management’s inability to organize the operation, subjecting workers to sacrifices on a daily basis, so that everything looks as normal as possible”.

“Did TAP think of carrying out an operation equivalent to that of 2019 with 2,500 fewer workers?”, he asked himself.

With regard to the inflationary crisis, Sitava said it would approach the company to discuss measures that reverse the trend of wage devaluation.

In this sense, the workers’ representatives also urged the company to “avoid unnecessary expenses” (are these 500 thousand euros a necessary expense?), such as the change of headquarters, which they consider an “unusual” and “very unreasonable” idea, since it would require “large works of several million euros, and whose income will also be around four to five million euros annually”.

TAP SA’s losses decreased in the first half of this year to 202.1 million euros, compared to the negative figure of 493.1 million euros obtained in the same period last year, indicated the carrier.

In a note published by the Securities Market Commission (CMVM), TAP said that “the net result is clearly negative, but the recovery continues in recent quarters”.

In the second quarter, the airline registered a reduction of 37.2% in losses, for a negative result of 80.4 million euros, compared to 128.1 million obtained in the same period of the previous year.

The executive president of TAP, Christine Ourmières-Widener, highlighted, in the note, that “the second quarter registered a very healthy demand and higher revenues per passenger”, which made it possible to offset the increase in costs.

Sheet 8 with Branches