According to Públituris, the association defends the attribution of a “specific non-refundable support” to help companies cover fixed costs and to compensate for the lack of invoicing during these periods of involuntary closure.

The Associação da Hotelaria, Restauração e Similares de Portugal (AHRESP) is defending compensation measures for catering and similar companies and tourist accommodation that are forced to involuntarily close due to the absence of workers who are infected with Covid-19.

“Given the high rate of transmissibility of the Omicron variant, catering and similar companies and tourist accommodation are being forced to carry out involuntary closures, due to the absence of workers who are infected with Covid-19 or in prophylactic isolation”, says the association.

In the statement AHRESP says that, despite the closures, companies maintain “the obligation to ensure the full payment of all fixed costs, namely the salaries of workers who have not been infected or are in isolation” , defending, therefore, that to compensate for this situation, companies should be entitled to “specific non-refundable support”.

“Given these serious constraints, AHRESP argues that specific non-refundable support should be granted, of simple and immediate attribution, in order to compensate for all the costs that companies continue to have to bear in periods of total lack of invoicing as the result of the forced closure of establishments”, concludes the association.