The Union of Portuguese Nurses (SEP) announced on Tuesday a strike for Friday, followed by a rally in front of the Ministry of Health demanding better working conditions and the hiring of more specialists.
The strike, timed to coincide with International Nurse’s Day, will take place from 08:00 to 24:00.
The concentration, which will bring together union delegates, leaders and activists, is scheduled for 11:00 am in front of the Ministry of Health, AKP President José Carlos Martins said at a press conference at the union’s headquarters on Avenida July 24 in Lisbon.
He added that the shutdown is due to deteriorating working conditions with increased use of overtime hours and consequent fatigue of nurses, and forms of fighting are expected to intensify.
José Carlos Martins mentioned that “with this fighting and this simultaneous celebration” the nurses want to demand from the Ministry of Health, according to what they demand and with the fighting to be developed, “two or three areas of solving many other problems “.
“From the outset, it is clear that the Ministry of Health should also issue instructions for fair and legal scoring for promotion purposes, and for nurses who were pregnant and not pregnant. transition to the category of a specialist nurse for this reason, so that guidelines for the transition to this new category can be issued,” he defended.
Nurses are also demanding the restoration of wage parity between nursing careers and higher technical careers in public administration, as well as earlier retirement.
And historically even today [terça-feira] there is such a marked shortage of nurses, and that is why we are demanding more nurses and the unreliable connections that still exist today. [terça-feira] exist,” said José Carlos Martins.
Asked if they are giving the Ministry of Health a deadline to issue these recommendations, José Carlos Martins said they expect a meeting to be set “as soon as possible to discuss these issues.”
If the Ministry of Health does not go along and solve the issues that the nurses require, he said, “the SEP authorities will decide how the forms of struggle will continue.”
José Carlos Martins recalled that nurses received an “important diploma” in scoring, but emphasized that its practical application in institutions causes various injustices.
“We have unreliable connections that don’t count for promotion purposes, breaks between contracts that count as breaks and don’t take into account all the time of service behind, and nurses who have been promoted to a higher category, namely managers and specialists, and who are now lagging behind. . in the remuneration of junior colleagues without a specialty,” he gave an example.
The AKP president said he expected “good enforcement” of the strike, in which a minimum set of services would be completed.
“For many years, we have taken on minimal services responsibly (…) and at no time during SEP strikes have there been any problems with users worthy of registration,” he said.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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