PCP wants to improve safety and health conditions in police work

PCP has introduced a bill that provides for improved safety, hygiene and health conditions at work for police officers, establishes guarantees of access to clinical examinations, and holds commanders or directors liable in case of non-compliance.

Speaking to Lusa about the diploma presented in Parliament on Wednesday, PCP MP Alma Rivera said that “to have a regimen and to have well-defined standards of hygiene and safety at work is the basic right of any worker.”

“This is what is lacking in the security forces and what the police have stated, exposed and condemned,” he said, warning of “attrition levels” and suicides “related to police functions.”

According to the PKP deputy, “measures and ensuring follow-up in terms of mental and physical health are necessary” in law enforcement agencies and services.

“Incredibly, there is an obvious shortcoming in this area at the moment, and we believe that this is a priority that needs to be set, not least because it allows you to prevent not only burnout, but also accidents at work, mistakes that also causes an overload of work and keeping the police in order,” he said.

In that sense, in the diploma, handed out on Wednesday and which Lusa had access to this Thursday, PCP proposes that each institution promote clinical screenings at the start of operations, and then annually for professionals with more than 50 years of experience, and every two years for the rest. .

Along with these exams, PCP also suggests that professionals receive “adequate training in occupational safety and health in the workplace, relevant to the work and the conduct of their activities.”

In case of non-compliance with the legal norms on safety and health at work, the PKP proposes to lay responsibility on “chiefs and heads of law enforcement agencies and services” with a sanction that may lead to dismissal.

The party also envisions that occupational safety and health representatives will be elected by the police elements, and in these elections “only lists submitted by trade union organizations that have members in the institution can participate.”

“By establishing minimum conditions for access to safety, health and safety at work, by assigning responsibility (…), by offering representation of elements of the police in determining these matters, and by speeding up the training of health and safety professionals in the workplace, (…) we are contributing contribute to the improvement of the public security service,” Alma Rivera summed up.

This will be the third time that the PKP has presented this bill to the Assembly of the Republic, and in the last two legislatures – when the “cunning” was still in effect – the diploma was rejected in a vote of the PS against and abstention by the PS. , PSD and CDS.

Asked what position she thinks the PS will take this time with an absolute majority, Alma Rivera replied that there have been 169 suicides in the security forces over the past 20 years, which shows that “every passing day” does ” more obvious that something is not working.”

“What can make PS change its mind? The confrontation with reality and, unfortunately, the number of both burnouts and suicides, including, is very disturbing,” he stressed.

Along with this bill, PCP presented another diploma this Thursday, which aims to create the Public Security Police Instructor (PSP) Statute.

In this bill, PCP warns that those who volunteer to become PSP instructors are currently losing their footing in operational life, which in some cases means “not receiving subsidies” and “significant loss of wages.”

In this sense, the party’s proposed PSP Coach Regulations provides that coaches will be entitled to “a single subsidy equal to all professional categories and corresponding to the highest value”, as well as “reinstatement in the position they held”. when the training activity ends.