Algarve nurses may go on strike if the administration of the Algarve Local Health Unit, in "full capacity since January 2024", continues without scheduling the meeting requested by the Portuguese Nurses Union, something that is being seen by unionists such as a lack of desire to solve problems.
In a press release, the SEP says it has already reiterated “the request for an urgent meeting to the administration” and that, in parallel, it will “meet with nurses in the services”.
“If the meeting is not scheduled, we will decide forms of struggle that could lead to strikes,” warns the union.
According to the SEP, three months later, Algarve nurses continue “without any response to meeting requests”. Along the way, the “problems get worse and the Administration continues to show no desire to resolve them. This is the only way to understand not scheduling a repeatedly requested meeting.”
At issue is the «accounting of points for specialist nurses and chiefs promoted until 2011 (there are explicit guidelines from the Ministry of Health to resolve this)», as well as the challenge to the «withdrawal of rights» and the «unregulated working hours – hundreds of hours of work extraordinary, absence of breaks between shifts that allow physical and psychological rest».
The SEP gives two examples of administration decisions/positions that nurses do not accept, one of which is linked to student worker status.
«Nurses only have to prove that they are students and have the right to the possibilities that the law offers. The administration is forcing nurses to make a request that may or may not be deferred. Furthermore, it intends to ask for days already taken for training back, which the law grants", accuses the union.
The other example concerns «compensation for hard work in psychiatry and oncology services». «Nurses have the right to a reduction of one hour of weekly work for every 3 years of work in these services, up to a minimum of 30 hours per week and an additional 5 days of vacation per year. For some time now, as a result of negotiations with the SEP, the administration has accepted that this compensation be extended to nurses working in oncology day hospitals and the entire psychiatry department. Without any negotiation and/or consultation, the current administration decided to break the commitment made to nurses», they assure.
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