NHS pharmacists are returning to strike action on Tuesday, this time across the country following district strikes on the 5th and 12th of this month, in a bid to force a “serious negotiation process” with the authorities.
The National Union of Pharmacists (NUP) disputes that the Ministry of Health remains silent, expressing no intention to “initiate a serious negotiation process.”
The last strike notice issued in July included national strikes (July 24 and September 19) and district strikes (September 5 and 12).
On September 5, the strike affected pharmacists in the districts of Beja, Évora, Faro, Lisbon, Portalegre, Santarem and Setubal, as well as in the autonomous regions of the Azores and Madeira, and on September 12 – in Braga, Bragança, Porto, Viana do. Castelo, Vila Real, Aveiro, Castelo Branco, Coimbra, Guarda, Leiria and Viseu.
The protest will end on Tuesday with a national strike.
Among the requirements of the SNF are updating the tariff schedule, full accounting of work experience in the SNF for promotion and career growth, adequacy of the number of pharmacists to the needs of the civil service and recognition of the title of specialist by the Ministry of Health.
“Unlike what is happening with other trade union structures in the health sector, which negotiated with the ministry even despite planned and ongoing protests and strikes, the meeting scheduled for June 2 with the SNF was postponed,” the union complained when it issued a strike notice, saying it could only conclude that the trustee had refused to negotiate.
In addition to the strikes that began on July 24, pharmacists had already stopped for three days in June to demand progress in negotiations with the government.
A meeting between the two parties took place in January, which the union considered an “absolute disappointment”, and subsequent meetings ended without significant progress.
On the last day of the district strike – the 12th of this month – about three dozen pharmacists gathered at the entrance to the main center of the Hospital and University Center of Coimbra (CHUC).
Then the president of the SNC, Enrique Regengo, stressed that six years after the creation of the quarry, “everything that should have been done has not been done”: “Worse, the government is not even starting the promised dialogue with the union,” he added.
Speaking to reporters at the time, he also asked the question: “We don’t have enough personnel, but 80% of our people are at the very bottom of the career ladder and salary scale from 1999. If we have a shortage of staff and working conditions are like this, how is this what we call the new generations of social networks?
The SNF President also said that we are currently seeing the departure of experienced pharmacists from the SNS, “who must train new generations” in three specialties – hospital pharmacy, clinical analysis and human genetics.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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