Brazilian Postal Workers on Strike over Danger Allowance

Postal workers of a Brazilian state-owned company have gone on strike in a dispute over the payment of a danger allowance.

There is confusion over exactly how many postmen have joined the industrial action, with their union claiming 80 percent and employer Empresa Brasileira de Correios e Telegrafos (ECT) saying it was just 30 percent.

The dispute centers on the state-owned company’s refusal to fulfill an agreement to pay postmen a danger allowance of 30 percent of their wages, signed in Nov. 2007.

The workers’ union claims the terms of the agreement, which was ratified this year by Helio Costa, Brazil’s minister of communications, has not been honored.

However, ECT says it cannot “legally” pay postmen a danger allowance, as the occupation is not entitled to such payments under Brazilian work regulations.

Under pressure, though, ECT has created a special external activities allowance and Monday paid 260 reais (about 162.5 U.S. dollars) to each employee. The union, however, demands that the company stick to the terms of the original agreement.

As a result of the strike, mail delivery is “the most affected sector” of the company, union representative Jose Goncalves de Almeida said. He added that 80 percent of workers from 22 of the country’s 26 states have downed tools.

But ECT claimed that only services offering guaranteed on-time delivery have been “suspended as a precaution.”

The striking workers also demanded a revision of the company’s career and profit sharing plans. They complained that the union has been left out of negotiations on the current plans, which are “not favorable” to them.