Hotel employees in Portuguese capital protest to demand wage increase

Hotel employees in Portuguese capital Lisbon began a two week protest on Monday to demand an increase in their wages, local media reported.

Employees from around nine hotels are protesting for two weeks outside the Ritz Hotel in Lisbon.

The hotel employees complain that they have not had a wage increase in five years and that their salaries are not being paid as stipulated by the law.

"The governments suspended holiday pay for two years. In January everything went back to normal, but companies don't want to pay," Maria das Dores Gomes, President of the Hotelaria do Sul Sindicate told Portuguese Lusa News Agency.

"We would like a minimum wage rise of 30 euros (33.6 U.S. dollars) for everyone. One euro per day," she said, adding that the sector was "precarious" and increasingly relies on trainees and temporary workers.

The Portuguese government recently agreed to raise the national minimum wage to 505 euros. However, Portugal still has the lowest minimum wage in Southern Europe.

The country has been raising taxes and cutting spending to meet the terms of a 78--billion--euro bailout program it signed in 2011 with the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank, which formally ended in May last year. (1 euro = 1.12 U.S. dollars) Enditem