The nurses in the Algarve will go on strike on January 24, in protest against the non-compliance by the Regional Health Administration and the University Hospital Center of the Algarve with a commitment that these entities made with the union in September.
In addition to this stoppage, which will affect the units of the National Health Service throughout the Algarve, namely the three hospitals and the Health Centres, the nurses have also asked for «meetings with the other deputies elected by the Algarve – until now we had only met with the PS deputies'.
They also promise "new struggles for February, which could go through more days of strike," according to Nuno Manjua, from the Algarve regional directorate of the Portuguese Nurses Union (SEP).
The agreements in question, related to career advancement and salary adjustments, were signed in writing during the pre-election period and led the Portuguese Nurses Union to call off a two-day strike that was scheduled for September.
Now, and after both entities have missed the deadline to regularize the situation of "hundreds of nurses", something that should have happened by the end of 2019, the union members went public announcing that they will go on strike, because they consider themselves "deceived" .
«In the case of CHUA, the agreement meant applying to colleagues with an Individual Employment Contract the same progression rules applied to colleagues with an Employment Contract in Public Functions. It's something that is easy to do, not least because the process had already started with colleagues from Lagos, and the process has yet to be extended to other CHUA units», revealed Nuno Manjua, on the sidelines of a Press Conference that the SEP promoted today. January 9th, on Faro.
On the part of the ARS, the commitment "was to account for the working time prior to the salary adjustment that occurred due to the imposition of a new career".
“In 2009, there was a career change and in 2011, 2012 and 2013, nurses were placed, in stages, in the first salary position of the new career. The ARS pledged to count the time of service prior to that moment», according to the union leader.
“There is an understanding on the part of the Central Administration that this was a career progression. And the service time only starts counting from the last progression. But this was not a progression, we have already refuted that, even legally. And the ARS agrees with us and that's why it signed», reinforced Nuno Manjua.
“Nurses lost 70% of their working time during the career freeze period. There are nurses who in 2020 are 18 years old without progression, therefore, without any salary increase. the freeze prevented the progression of five levels», reads, on the other hand, in the communiqué that was read and delivered to journalists at today's conference.
Meanwhile, ARS do Algarve sent an email to the union “saying that, as they heard in the news that they were asking for money back from other institutions, they decided to be cautious. But they don't have to base their decisions on the news they hear, they have to fulfill what they've committed to and it's supported by the six legal opinions we gave them».
"Let's see what response the institutions give us, given that we are not available for these political maneuvers of signing a commitment before the elections and, in the post-election, saying that it will be fulfilled, but making excuses and dragging it along , not to materialize», concluded Nuno Manjua.
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