The Funchal Labor Court decided that RTP-Madeira will have to recognize the existence of a contract with 24 workers who provided services through external companies and green receipts. The case had been brought last year and judge Elisabete Moreira da Silva’s sentence was dated yesterday. Only two of the workers who filed the action were not recognized as having an employment relationship.
This decision covers several radio and television journalists and camera operators, as well as professionals who worked as directors, announcers, information and production assistants, operations assistants, planning technicians, drivers and electricians. The professionals whose employment relationship has now been recognized started their jobs on different dates, but the oldest one had worked for the channel since 2009.
João Lizardo, lawyer who represented some of the authors of this action, namely those linked to the National Union of Telecommunications and Audiovisual Workers (SINTAV), stated that the sentence “is overall very favorable to workers” and stressed that “it is about time” for RTP to recognize these contracts.
RTP can also appeal this decision to the Lisbon Court of Appeal.