Fifteen service chiefs with CP - Comboios de Portugal have been exposed for receiving between 1000 and 2000 euros in pay rises, just when the 2016 State Budget stated “there is no room for management bonuses, and pay rises in public businesses are prohibited”.
To make matters worse, the railway authority registered losses of 159,000 euros in its most recently published set of accounts (referring to 2014).
Eagle-eyed union SNAQ has denounced the pay increases, saying the highest benefitted a service chief promoted up one level, which saw his take home another 2000 euros in his pay packet.
Confronted by tabloid journalists, an official CP source explained that the company had been “condemned to pay considerable damages in February 2016 to workers who had gone to court to complain they were being paid less than they should be for the jobs they were doing”.
“In the face of this decision, the company saw it necessary to correct similar situations”, said the source, adding that even with the massive increases, CPs payroll bill had still managed to reduce by 77,000 per year.
In spite of the Alice in Wonderland logis, SNAQ spokesperson Catarina Cardoso told reporters that as many as 30 CP directors “continued, since 2011, to receive a much lower salary than their functions demanded” and that nothing seems to have been done to correct their situation.
Article by kind permission of http://portugalresident.com
