Lar do Comércio, in Matosinhos, fired 16 workers at the end of September, part of them from the group pressured to terminate their contract, the coordinator of the Union of Health, Solidarity and Social Security Workers revealed to Lusa
According to Joaquim Espírito Santo, the institution alleged, in the dismissal letter sent to workers on September 29th, "lack of funds and the need to replace them with external work".
"Despite this, they spent more than 500 thousand euros on these dismissals, paying all the rights and sending the letter to the unemployment fund and Social Security", said the union leader, clarifying that "part of the dismissed workers were part of the group that was being pressured to terminate contracts and others were at home, receiving wages without working".
Lar do Comércio is a Private Institution of Social Solidarity (IPSS), located in Matosinhos, in the district of Porto.
In the beginning of September, the union denounced pressures for the termination of contracts and demanded clarifications from the Government, having, in the meantime, according to Joaquim Espírito Santo met with the parliamentary groups of PS, PSD, BE, PCP and Livre to expose the situation and ask for action.
"As far as we know, only BE questioned the Government if it has the knowledge and if Social Security knows what's going on", reported the union coordinator.
Meanwhile, the "meeting requested in June and repeated in September to Social Security took place on October 12, with the presence of a representative of the Matosinhos City Council", added the responsibility of a meeting "where little progress was made".
"We were told that, as the IPSS are private, Social Security is only responsible for overseeing the welfare of users and the scrupulous fulfillment of protocols as well as the number of human resources required in the protocols, but the management of these human resources is not up to them", reported Joaquim Espírito Santo.
About the environment in which the remaining employees are working, the union leader quoted "one of the fired employees" to affirm that "the climate of fear and uneasiness continues due to the pressure and moral harassment of the institution".
"The information we have is that there are less than 100 elderly people in residence, that is, a third of the total capacity of the Lar do Comércio", he said.
Lusa tried to get a reaction from the direction of the Lar do Comércio, but so far it has not been possible.