This Wednesday, the Ministry of Health welcomes the Portuguese Nurses’ Union (SEP) and the Union Platform Compromisso Pela Enfermagem, two days after the class strike that led to the suspension of negotiations two weeks ago.
According to the ministry’s agenda, Health Minister Ana Paula Martins and State Secretary for Health Management Cristina Vaz Tome will receive the platform of the five trade union structures at 2:00 p.m. and the SEP at 4:00 p.m.
The meetings come after the watchdog suspended talks with unions on July 16 due to the AKP’s advance notice of a strike.
The AKP statement said that “the wave of indignation among nurses and their mobilization for the nationwide strike on August 2, which is ongoing, became decisive for the Health Ministry to resume negotiations, in accordance with what was established in the protocol of negotiations.”
The AKP announced the strike on July 16, the day it was scheduled to hold a meeting with the Health Ministry, which the union said was suspended due to the lack of advance notice of the strike.
“Nurses must remain silent and quiet throughout the negotiation process. This has determined that this meeting and the suspension of the negotiation process will not produce any results while the strike notice is in effect,” Director Guadalupe Simões told Luse during the SEP.
In a statement released now, the AKP said that, as it had told the health minister, “advance notices of strike action serve, among other things, as a warning that all demands of nurses must be discussed with a view to reaching a solution.”
He also stresses that, given the current proposal from the guardianship to expand the careers of nurses, “the only solution is to continue the strike.”
The SEP claims that the Ministry of Health’s obligation to submit a proposal to change the grid remains unfulfilled and also claims, among other things, that 35 hours a week is the working regime for nurses.
The Nurses’ Union (SE), one of five members of the union platform, also announced that it would meet with the supervisory authority today after the ministry presented a proposal earlier this month to increase the salary of nurses by 52 euros who entered the category of nurse, nurse specialist or nurse manager for the first time.
For SE, the proposal presented by the government “in addition to being insufficient, is seen as an insult to the professional class that plays a vital role in the NHS.”
“In a context where other professional classes are seeing a salary increase of at least 300 euros, nurses are making it clear that they will not accept a salary increase of less than 35% of the entry level in a nursing career for all categories,” SE defends in a statement.
He also warns that the meeting will be “an important and final opportunity to reaffirm the nurses’ position: we are not at a loss.”
“The expectation is clear: we will not allow the government, the Minister of Health herself and the boards of directors of ULS [Unidades Locais de Saúde]they go “to the baths” without explaining to the Portuguese why they are leaving the Socialist Republic in agony. If other ministers have managed to reach a fair agreement, it is not because of the lack of warning that we will not be able to save the Socialist Republic and its support – the nurses,” SE emphasizes.
SNE is part of the Platform of the Nurses’ Union, which also brings together the Independent Union of All United Nurses (SITEU), the Nurses’ Union (SE), the Independent Union of Professional Nurses (SIPENF) and the Democratic Union of Nurses of Portugal (SINDEPOR).
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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