The Azores Government has authorized the Social Security Institute to enter into financing agreements with banking institutions for up to €1.2 million, to guarantee the advance payment of outstanding wages to Portuguese workers assigned to the Lajes Air Base. At a press conference, Artur Lima explained that this is a “simple and confidential process” that will allow workers to receive their missing fortnightly wages. The government official also criticized the Republic for “abandoning Portuguese and Azoreans” who are “in the service of a foreign power.”

The Regional Government, through a Council Resolution, authorized the Azores Social Security Institute to enter into financing agreements with banking institutions, up to a limit of €1,200,000.00, to cover the advance payment of wages in arrears to workers assigned to Air Base No. 4 in Lajes, Terceira Island. The measure follows the United States of America’s temporary suspension of payment of these workers’ salaries.

At a press conference held yesterday in Angra do Heroísmo, the Vice-President of the Regional Government, Artur Lima, explained the “simple and confidential” process inherent in the published order:

“The worker goes to Social Security (those who want to, voluntarily), takes their pay slip, presents the necessary documents, and the respective fortnight’s back pay is transferred to their account. It is a simple, confidential process between Social Security and the worker.”

On the other hand, Artur Lima criticized the Government of the Republic for abandoning these workers:

“The Government of the Republic has abandoned Portuguese and Azorean citizens in the service of a foreign power. This is an agreement between states, in which the Minister of Foreign Affairs, who never replied to the letter I sent him, should have come forward, followed by the Minister of Defense.”

The government official accuses the Republic of “simply abandoning Portuguese workers who work for a base that is important for maintaining world peace”:

“They are Portuguese citizens in a difficult social situation … and they have been completely abandoned to their fate by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Defense.”

According to the decree, published yesterday in the Official Journal, the current situation falls within a “context of exceptional economic precariousness,” characterized by “unforeseen and temporary circumstances” that jeopardize the “livelihood of households affected by external causes.”

“Given the urgency of the situation and its direct impact on the social and economic stability of Terceira Island, it is necessary to authorize the Azores Social Security Institute to mobilize appropriate financial instruments, including the conclusion of financing agreements with banking institutions, in order to guarantee the amounts necessary to meet the costs arising from this exceptional intervention,” the Resolution reads.

The Government also notes that this situation directly affects “hundreds of families residing in the Autonomous Region of the Azores, with immediate repercussions on the local economy and social stability of Terceira Island.”

A “lifeline”

The President of the Lajes Base Workers’ Commission, Paula Terra, speaking to “Antena 1 Açores,” said that Portuguese workers were involved in developing the announced solution:

“We believe that this is, in reality, in the absence of a response from the Government of the Republic, a ‘lifeline’ for workers, because it will allow workers to pay their bills. We have already gone about 36 days without pay. This is the best solution that has been presented to us.”

Regarding the solution being implemented through the Social Security Institute, Paula Terra explains that the first measure presented to the Base workers was for them to “go to a bank and take out a kind of loan,” with “no interest being charged to the worker, but the worker would have to take out that loan.” The Commission President revealed that this option created “some unease among workers,” and believes that resolving the issue of salary delays through Social Security “seems to us to be the best solution.”

“Exceptional and urgent nature”

In the announced order, the Government of the Azores indicates that it has been monitoring this situation in conjunction with the Government of the Republic. This situation is of an “exceptional and urgent nature.” It recognizes that there is a “need to temporarily guarantee the continuity of income for those workers until the aforementioned circumstances are overcome.”

The Azorean executive mentions that the legal framework for the presence and operation of Air Base No. 4 stems from the Cooperation and Defense Agreement between Portugal and the United States of America, and that this agreement “enshrines the joint responsibility of the two States in the management and operation of the infrastructure and personnel assigned thereto.”

In this regard, the Government stresses that it is important for the Portuguese State to ensure, in “situations of non-compliance or disruption arising from external causes,” through its competent bodies and entities, the “continuity of the labor rights of national workers.”

About employment relations between the United States Forces in the Azores (USFORAZORES) and their Portuguese workers, USFORAZORES has a duty to “pay workers fair remuneration and to comply fully with the employment contract.” However, the Government of the Azores notes that the same Labor Agreement does not provide workers with the right to suspend the employment contract in the event of failure to pay wages on time, for a period of 15 days after the due date.

According to the order, in the Portuguese labor system, failure to pay wages on time gives the worker the “right to suspend or terminate the contract, under the terms provided for in the Labor Code, and the worker may apply for unemployment benefits if he or she meets the respective requirements.” However, Portuguese workers employed by the United States Forces in the Azores do not benefit from this prerogative. Nevertheless, USFORAZORES and its workers “contribute to social security.”

José Henrique Andrade is a journalist for Correio dos Açores, directed by Natalino Viveiros.

Translated into English as a community outreach program by the Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute (PBBI) and the Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures Department (MCLL), in collaboration with Bruma Publication and ADMA (Azores-Diaspora Media Alliance) at California State University, Fresno. PBBI thanks Luso Financial for sponsoring NOVIDADES.