An additional meeting between the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and the Union of Justice Workers (UJW) regarding the payment of the bonus ended without an agreement, so the union continues to strike and is preparing to appeal to parliament.
“Unfortunately, the minister feels comfortable with the agreement she signed with another union structure that is contrary to the interests of the judicial officials. We, for our part, will be here to make the government see that the agreement is useless,” He said SOJ President Carlos Almeida had spoken to Lusa about the additional negotiating meeting that took place today at MJ.
Although the union expressed willingness to make the demands more flexible by allowing for a gradual achievement of the 15% target in the procedural penalty addendum, “the minister said there was no limit” to going beyond the 13.5% already agreed with the Judicial Service Union (SFJ) and including the increase in wages as demanded by the SOJ.
In this regard, Carlos Almeida intends to address the parliamentary groups of the Bloc de Esquerda and the PCP, which have bills that guarantee the integration of the supplement into the salary and its payment for 14 months, something that has already been proposed by the PSD and the Minister of Finance, then Deputy Miranda Sarmento, when the PSD was in opposition.
“Now the finance minister says that this cannot be done because it would be illegal. We do not understand how it can be illegal, because it was already proposed by the finance minister himself and has already been done for two other careers,” including judges, said Carlos Almeida, criticizing the change in position of the finance portfolio holder.
In the absence of an agreement, the Union of Workers is maintaining the declared strikes in force in the afternoon, every day of the week, as well as on Wednesday and Friday mornings, a strike that last week again led to the release of detainees without appearing for their first court hearing, since it was not possible to meet the 48-hour deadline for doing so.
It is not guaranteed that the minister will reconvene the union to discuss these issues, as the matter remains open, but Carlos Almeida acknowledges that the possible debate in parliament on the two bills could put pressure in this direction.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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