Of the 45 former Petrogal workers who remain unemployed, 30 will be able to have access to a free train driver's course. According to the Matosinhos Câmara, it will be the Fund for a Just Transition to pay for the training, which would cost 30 thousand euros each
Not all former Petrogal workers will want to join the machinist's course, notes the Vice Mayor of Matosinhos, Carlos Mouta, but of the 45 employees laid off from the Leça da Palmeira refinery, in Matosinhos, and who remain unemployed there is a vacancy for at least 30. According to the mayor, firstly there will be a "selection and recruitment process for exams" and it will depend on the results obtained that the ex-workers may or may not enter the machinists course. No-one will be able to access the training on a contractual basis. "In these cases, if you are selected, you have to resign", the mayor explained.
There will be other training courses available, the deputy mayor adds, but this one will last between six and seven months, the last two of which will be practical. The course for train drivers was suggested by the workers, as the salary associated to this profession will be equivalent to the salary they received as employees of Petrogal. Despite the specificity of the work they performed in the refinery, Carlos Mouta notes that "most will have the 12th grade", not finding professions with salaries as high as those at Petrogal.
Driving "any train in Europe"
During the training, all those admitted will have access to the national minimum wage, food allowance and paid travel. The course will be paid by the Fund for a Just Transition, via the Institute of Employment and Vocational Training (IEFP), as a result of an application to that financial instrument. The total expenditure will be around one million euros.
If each of the ex-workers of Petrogal had to bear the costs of this course, the expense would be around 30 thousand euros. The high expenditure is justified by the fact that once they have completed the training, the workers will be able to drive "any train in the whole of Europe".
The Fund for a Just Transition will transfer to Matosinhos a sum of 60 million euros. The negative impact caused by the closure of the refinery amounts to 220 million euros.
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