On Wednesday, March 10, nurses from the Algarve protested again against the impasse in the career progression of more than 500 professionals in the region, despite the commitments made by ARS Algarve and CHUA, which remain unfulfilled, announced today, Monday, the Union of Portuguese Nurses.
In addition to demanding that the Regional Health Administration (ARS) and the University Hospital Center of the Algarve (CHUA) comply with the agreements signed with the union, which provide for the progression and subsequent updating of the remuneration of more than 500 nurses of the In the Algarve, trade unionists also demand the start of negotiations for a single nursing career and that a «Relevant in the performance assessment» of nurses be attributed «in the bienniums of the pandemic», ie «2019/20 and 2021/22».
At a press conference that took place in Faro, Nuno Manjua, head of the SEP, announced that the Algarve nurses have decided to proceed with "monthly protest initiatives", the first of which will take place on Wednesday, at 10:00 am, at the door of the Hospital de Faro.
"Other initiatives in March, April and May" will follow, which will be "timely announced", but which will never go through a strike, given the pandemic situation facing the country and the world.
"In these protests we will be members of the union leadership and, eventually, nurses who are not on duty, which will not be many," he said.
The protests are current, but refer to old demands, namely with regard to career progression.
It is that, recalled Nuno Manjua, in 2019 the union and nurses reached written agreements for career advancement and on the remuneration table of about 500 nurses, «100 from ARS and more than 400 from CHUA».
In the case of the Regional Health Administration, the accounting of the length of service prior to the transition to the special nursing career (which took place between 2011 and 2013) is at issue, which harmed nurses with contracts in public functions of the 1st echelon, which, despite remaining at the same career level, their previous service time was “forgotten”.
In the case of public hospitals in the Algarve, what was assumed in writing was the accounting of the length of service, to date, of nurses with an Individual Employment Contract, for the purposes of career progression of 419 nurses.
This type of contracts began to be carried out in EPE hospitals in 2001, which led to the creation of two parallel careers for nurses working in the NHS.
In both cases, this is due to the progression "of one or two levels", resulting from the negotiations that took place from January 2018 between the SEP and these two entities, which culminated in this commitment.
This is the possible progression, taking into account that NHS nurses, whose careers were frozen for more than a decade, between 2005 and 2018, lost the right to 70% of the years of service, to calculate career progression, due to a law change a few years ago.
In other words, “instead of the 5 or 6 steps they should go up, nurses will go up one or two”.
It is certain that not even what was agreed was, for the time being, fulfilled.
"On the part of the ARS, the same argument continues: they say they decided to count the entire time of service, but that the guardianship does not allow it", revealed Nuno Manjua, who adds that he does not accept this justification "because the ARS has the autonomy to move forward without the authorization from the Government'.
In the case of CHUA, “this agreement was signed by the previous Board of Directors”.
However, the union "has already met with the current administration, which says it agrees with our reasoning, but continues to do nothing," he accused.
In the case of the hospital centre, the former administrators even started the process and regularized the situation of 17 of the 419 nurses eligible for career advancement, all of them from the Hospital de Lagos.
“The process was supposed to be phased, but it stopped there”.
This situation has already motivated several protests by the nurses - who just won't have been due to the pandemic.
However, the SEP decided to return to the charge and will carry out initiatives not only in the Algarve, but also nationally.
In the case of nurses from the Algarve, the protest on Wednesday, which will be held «together with other professionals in essential professions, within the scope of the week of equality» between women and men, takes place just over a week after the SEP Algarve exposed in the Parliamentary Health Commission the situation of these 500 nurses, following the public petition “Supporting Nurses in the Algarve”, which collected 4817 signatures.
But despite the support they say they have received from deputies elected by the Algarve from different political forces, union members lament what they consider "an unacceptable incongruity between the words and actions" of the PS and PSD, which "failed parliamentary initiatives by the BE and the PCP that could have solved this problem once and for all».
Help us to do the Sul Informação!
Contribute your donation so that we can continue to make your journal!
Click here to support us (Paypal)
Or use our IBAN PT50 0018 0003 38929600020 44
Comments