Trade unions and the Ministry of Education resume negotiations on February 15 and 17

Teachers’ unions were called to a new round of talks at the Ministry of Education on February 15 and 17, Mario Nogueira, general secretary of the National Federation of Teachers (Fenprof), told Lusa on Thursday.

The meetings, approved by the Ministry, will be held at the same table and will focus on the new competition regime, as well as other issues that have been at the center of teachers’ demands, such as full time tracking.

The previous negotiating session, the fourth in a process that began in September 2022, took place on February 2 with the participation of 12 trade union organizations involved in the negotiations on the competition regime and the placement of teachers in schools.

As a result, the teachers’ unions felt that “practically nothing came of the meeting with the officials of the Ministry of Education”, whom they accused of only wanting to reach “small agreements”.

Secretary of State for Education António Leite believes progress has been made at the negotiating meeting on the recruitment and mobility regime and said he expects agreement on at least some of the proposals.

In January, Minister of Education Joao Costa presented a number of proposals, including increasing the number of employees in the pedagogical zone from 10 to 63, reducing its size, securing teachers on the school staff in 2024, merging ten thousand teachers, and increasing vacancies to access 5 and 7 levels.

The measures did not convince the unions, who criticized the guardianship authorities for not providing answers to the basic demands of teachers, especially to take into account all the frozen experience.

The teachers’ fight has been followed by successive strikes and demonstrations, with a new protest planned for Saturday in Lisbon.