BE: Wages in delay in cleaning ULS units Between Douro and Vouga

O Left Block (BE) today stated that the cleaning maids of the Local Health Unit of Entre Douro and Vouga (ULS EDV), based in Santa Maria da Feira, are with wages and holiday allowances in delay.

According to the coordination of this party in the district of Aveiro, the fault is the company Soma Pioneera Unipersonal Lda., which in 2024 took over the sanitation services of several buildings under the protection of ULS EDV, following a public tender launched by the Municipality of Santa Maria da Feira.

“ Since the company took over the contract, wages began to be paid with recurrent delay,” says BE. “[This Monday], November 9, the workers continued without receiving the salary of October and without any forecast of payment. There are also employees who still do not receive the holiday allowance they are entitled to”, he adds.

The party says that the women concerned have already gone to the Chamber of Fair to expose the situation and have also denounced the case to the Working Conditions Authority, “which has made inspective visits to some places”, but notes that “the company does not respond to the contacts made to it”.

Lusa also tried to obtain clarification from Soma Pioneira, but the employee who answered one of the telephone numbers attached to the firm referred the matter to the boss and, also contacted, he did not answer.

For BE, “late wages are not just a contractual default” and they have two aggravating factors: on the one hand, they put at risk “an essential service for the prevention of infections and for the safety of patients and professionals” of health units; and on the other hand, they threaten particularly the family stability of workers, who, because they have “low wages”, with the delay of a single monthly salary, are put “in question of paying the income or providing the house, food and basic expenses”.

BE has already questioned the Ministry of Health on the subject, complaining that “this case shows the effects of the outsourcing of essential services in the National Health Service and public procurement based on the lowest price”.

“The public entity that hires cannot be held responsible. The law obliges contracting authorities to ensure that contracted companies comply with labour standards and the State must use all means at its disposal to ensure that these workers receive what is due to them ", defends the document sent to the Ministry by Mr Fabian Figueiredo.

For BE, guardianship must, therefore, “take away the consequences of this case: the National Health Service needs to take back the cleaning services of its units directly, with workers integrated in its frameworks and with rights”.

The Base portal, which lists the contracts of the public entities of the country, indicates that, in addition to services at the ULS EDV, Soma Pioneira also won competitions and direct adjustments for the cleaning of municipal facilities, an award by the House, and for urban cleaning in Canedo, Vale and Vila Maior, at an assignment of the respective Freguesias Union.

The platform also reveals that, after the contract of EUR 545,824 at the beginning of 2024 for services to be performed at the ULS EDV, the Chamber of Feira signed with the same company a new contract for the same purpose at the start of 2025, then at the value of EUR 123,965.

In the specific case of the contract for cleaning municipal facilities, signed in March 2025, the House awarded this service for more than EUR 2.9 million.

Questioned on the subject, the municipality refused to comment.