The national coordinator of the Union of All Education Professionals (Stop) said this Thursday, February 2, that the Government still has not responded to the teachers' demands, considering yesterday's meeting to be heartbreaking.
«Although Stop has been requesting, for several years now, negotiating meetings on issues that we consider essential for schools (...) we found that there was not a single line about it», said André Pestana, speaking to journalists.
At the end of the meeting, which lasted about six hours, bringing together all the trade union organizations and the Ministry of Education, André Pestana made a negative assessment of the meeting, considering it "disheartening" that, given the demands of the professionals, there was not "a single line » about the teachers' main demands.
On the agenda, there was only the recruitment and mobility of teaching staff, which has been negotiated since September, and an amendment to the order on continuing training.
On the other hand, the teachers, who have been on strike for two months, claim better working conditions and wages and, above all, the recovery of all the time of service that was frozen.
“Faced with the set of main claims that have led to this historic mobilization, clearly [the Ministry of Education] is shooting alongside what is really essential”, said the leader of Stop.
Recalling the two demonstrations organized by that union in January, which brought together several thousand people in Lisbon, André Pestana considered that they reveal “a great revolt on the part of those who work in schools”.
For this reason, the union leaves to the professionals the decision of whether or not to maintain the strike for an indefinite period, which started on December 9th and for which advance notices have already been delivered until February 24th, but considers that teachers and non-teachers seem not wanting to back down.
As for non-teaching workers, who are no longer under the tutelage of the Ministry of Education within the scope of the decentralization process, André Pestana said he was available to negotiate «with anyone».
«But we know that, in terms of funding, it will always have to pass through the central government and, therefore, we are always raising this issue with the central government», he justified.
Yesterday's meeting was the fourth negotiating round of the negotiation process for the teaching staff recruitment and mobility regime, which began in September. The Government and the unions are expected to meet again at the end of next week.
On behalf of the Government, the Secretary of State for Education António Leite considered that progress had been made and said he expected a global agreement or, at least, regarding some of the amendment proposals, such as the dynamic linkage and integration into the staff of more than 10 teachers still in 2023.
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