The proposal came from councilor António Mendonça (CDU), who was associated with the PS council, was unanimously voted on at a May 29th Chamber meeting, but it is still not certain that «about 40 to 42» professional firefighters from Faro come to have salaries equal to the sappers.
At issue is the regularization of the salaries of firefighters who, since 2012, are even considered sappers (with training that enables them to do so), but whose salary is different.
Source of the Chamber of Faro advanced to Sul Informação the numbers: “base salary of 557 euros” for these firefighters (formerly municipal), against “900 euros for sappers”.
Then, the “different categories” of each sapper enter into the equation, as explained to our newspaper, Sílvia Branquinho, one of the firefighters who is in this situation of uncertainty.
The voted proposal pleases the Chamber of Faro, but the municipality has "some doubts" that this salary regularization will happen.
"The Chamber can vote what it wants, but we have to know if things go ahead, which would be fair," said the same local authority. For now, the legal steps will be followed, with the final decision belonging to the Ministry of Internal Administration.
Rogério Bacalhau, president of the Chamber of Faro, has also already manifested, at the Municipal Assembly of February 23, against this situation which he called “complete shame”, because there are “firemen, who are specialized and do a job that no one else does, to be compared to operational assistants”.
This in terms of salary, and with operational assistants deserving, however, "all respect", he explained. Still, there are differences such as the fact that "these men [firemen] need training," reinforced the mayor.
As for the limitations, Rogério Bacalhau confirmed them, but also guaranteed that, "if there is capacity", he will take measures that allow the "mobility" of these professionals. "If I could, I would have done it a long time ago," he said.
The distrust on the part of the municipality of Faro may come from the fact that the Government is preparing a Professional Fire Brigade Statute.
Em interview to the newspaper Notícias ao Minuto, Fernando Curto, president of the National Association of Professional Firefighters, explained that the Statute could come to "equalize the salary of Municipal Firefighters and Sapadores, bearing in mind that Municipal Firefighters earn less than Sapadores Firefighters."
«But, to define the values, it has to be based on the salaries of the Firefighters Sapadores. I can't understand – and I don't think that's what will happen – that the Government wants to reduce the salaries of Sapadores», he added.
For now, nothing is certain in this statute, but the proposal voted by the Chamber of Faro comes in this sense: equalizing salaries among firefighters, also professionals, who do the same work as sappers, despite earning less.
In the proposal approved at a meeting of the Faro local authority, the Sul Informação had access, are given 15 days to proceed «to the preparation of the Staff of Firefighters Sapadores», to submit, afterwards, «to the next meeting of the Municipal Assembly of Faro».
The PS and CDU councilors conclude their proposal by saying that the deliberation "has been taking too long, for the benefit of our community, to defend their assets and assets and for the dignity of professionals in the context in which they are called to participate ».
Professional firefighter Sílvia Branquinho adds: “it has been a great struggle, with many meetings, but we finally got this proposal”.
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