This Wednesday, the Portuguese Nurses’ Union (SEP) launched a public campaign to expose that the Portuguese Private Hospital Association has not yet started the negotiation process on nursing careers.
“Today we have begun the process of publicly condemning a situation that we consider unacceptable. What is at stake is the revision of the collective labor agreement for nurses in private hospitals,” Rui Marroni of the AKP told Lusa after the protest. action in Almada, next to the CUF hospital.
At the beginning of the year, the AKP submitted a proposal to revise the collective labor agreement that would apply to nurses working in private health groups that are members of the Portuguese Association of Private Hospitalization (APHP).
“We presented our counterproposal and after almost two months we still have not scheduled a negotiation meeting, which we consider unacceptable,” said Rui Marroni.
Faced with this situation, the AKP launched a public exposure campaign throughout the country, collecting petitions from nurses declaring their support for the proposal presented by the AKP, posting banners and distributing leaflets to the public and clients, as well as hospitals from major private groups. , namely CUF, Luciad, Luz and Trophy.
“The public and clients of these private hospitals have a right to know that, despite the increasing profits touted by these groups, nurses are not valued as they should be,” the AKP said.
About 4,200 nurses work in nearly 80 private facilities on 40-hour contracts, the union leader said.
“Of the approximately 75,000 nurses existing in the country, only 4,200 nurses have 40-hour-a-week contracts,” he noted, stressing that the goal of the SDP is to normalize all 35-hour-a-week contracts.
“There is a gap in a situation that we believe cannot continue,” the union leader stressed, highlighting that some of these nurses are even working longer hours for which they “are not even paid” because “the schedules are not in order.”
Rui Marroni emphasized that until negotiations are held and some issues are not enshrined in the collective labor agreement, “nurses will continue to have an unregulated work schedule, without wage increases, without compensation for their work at night, on weekends and holidays” and at current prices, food benefits will remain low.
“So we intend to update these values and enshrine these issues in the collective labor agreement, so that then all institutions can begin to comply with what is approved in the collective labor agreement,” he said.
However, at this stage the union intends to begin the negotiation process, Rui Marroni said, adding that if the APHP does not accept some of these demands, which are “fair”, other protests will be considered.
The public disclosure campaign is taking place throughout the country and will continue until the negotiation process begins.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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