Teachers hired with updated salaries and retroactive payments to February

This Monday, the Minister of Education guaranteed that contract teachers will receive a salary update in February, with retroactive effect, associated with a stepped increase, as planned.

João Costa’s statement follows news from News Diary who warned that teachers continue to work without any salary updates, despite the government more than a year ago approving the creation of three tiers for those hired.

This change brought an end to the existing model, which did not provide pay increases for contract teachers, who always remained at Level 1, regardless of how many years of service they had.

In statements to journalists, Minister João Costa assured that no deadline for updating salaries had been exceeded: “From the very beginning it was planned that payments would be made in February. All of these payments will be made backdated to September. 1st”.

This measure will also apply to teachers who have gone through the Progress Acceleration Mechanism and the eight thousand teachers who have now joined.

The creation of three tiers for contract teachers was a victory for trade unions, which have asked the European Commission (EC) to end discrimination against these workers.

In 2021, the EC opened proceedings against Portugal, forcing the guardianship body to change the situation, which happened in May last year when it published a diploma establishing three salary levels.