PSP unions hold protest rallies today in Lisbon, Porto and Faro

This Friday, PSP unions are holding protest rallies at the airports and police stations of Lisbon, Porto and Faro to challenge and demonstrate their dissatisfaction with treatment they consider “unequal and discriminatory” towards the judicial police.

Last week the Association of Professional Police Unions (ASPP) held plenary meetings at the airports of Lisbon, Porto and Faro, but this Friday the protests are called rallies and are organized by the platform of the PSP trade unions and the GNR associations, despite the fact that they mainly involve PSP police officers. officers and occurs in public security police institutions.

Protest rallies will take place in the morning at the airports of Lisbon, Porto and Faro, and in the afternoon at the headquarters of the PSP teams in these three cities, and, according to the ASPP president, “there is a lot of mobilization and interest from the police.”

Since the PSP does not have the right to strike, the unions are asking the police to submit an application allowing them to be exempted from 15 hours a year to attend meetings and plenary sessions.

Paulo Santos told Lusa that the police were interested in attending the meetings and also in “helping them to be absent from duty and to demonstrate their indignation.”

The president of the PSP’s largest union said the 15-hour annual layoff mechanism “has lain dormant in union law for many years, and it has finally become possible to recognize that there is a window of opportunity here to signal grievances without jeopardizing specific situations and the personal.”

The meetings are part of a dispute that began after the government on November 29 approved PJ’s career travel allowance, which in some cases could represent an increase of almost €700 a month.

Members of the PSP and GNR consider this “unequal and discriminatory treatment.”

Paulo Santos stressed that the protests now make “more sense” after the platform met on Wednesday with the Minister of Internal Administration, who admitted that “the government does not intend to change” the PSP remuneration allowance. and GNR.

“We must take advantage of this police presence, both at the officer level, at the supervisor level and at the agent level, to demonstrate our outrage. And ask the current government or prepare the next government to come out on March 10 in order to change the current additions to the PSP as quickly as possible,” he said.

The platform, made up of seven public security police unions and four National Republican Guard associations, has already announced it will intensify protests in 2024 due to a lack of government response.

Some GNR association leaders will also be present at the protest rallies this Friday, but this mechanism of waiving 15 hours per year for participation in plenary sessions and meetings only applies to PSP police officers.

This platform includes the Association of Professional Security Guards, the National Autonomous Guard Association, the National Association of Sergeants of the Guard, the Independent Social and Professional Association of the Guard, the Union Professional Police Association, the Professional Police Union, the National Police Union, the National Police Union. , Independent Police Union, National Executive Career Alliance and United Police Union.