Workers carried out two partial strikes on November 6th and 14th, which had around 90% participation, leading to the closure of all stations.

Speaking to the Lusa agency, Sara Gligó, from Fectrans, said that between the two partial strikes, the board of directors of the Lisbon metro scheduled a meeting to try to demobilise the strike on the 14th, but that ended up having no effect.

“The solution presented by the board of directors is not a solution that is in the hands of the unions. It is a legal solution regarding the payment of variables. We want a resolution of all matters of variables from 2023 onwards. The board assumed with the work that it would pay this year for the variables referring to 2023 and 2024 and that did not happen”, she said.

The union leader also said that in addition to paying variables, workers want career regulations to be opened up.

“Our careers have been stagnant since 2009 and we understand that workers need to see their careers valued, not only monetarily but also in terms of their professional performance, in terms of their evaluation,” she said.

Last week, Metropolitano de Lisboa (ML), following the partial strikes called by unions, clarified that it had always paid “all remuneration” and still has no court decisions allowing changes to remuneration.

In a note, ML informed that it “has always complied with the payment of all remuneration due to its employees, in accordance with the law and the respective company agreements, notably with regard to overtime”, on rest days and “other remuneration variables”.

The Lisbon Metropolitan operates daily with four lines: Yellow (Rato-Odivelas), Green (Telheiras-Cais do Sodré), Blue (Reboleira-Santa Apolónia) and Red (Airport-São Sebastião). Typically, the service operates between 06:30 and 01:00.