Industrial action by teachers, nurses and doctors

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April 2001 saw industrial unrest in a number of areas of the Portuguese public sector, with teachers, nurses and doctors taking or threatening strikes over a variety of demands and government reform proposals in areas such as careers, pay and early retirement.

Industrial unrest broke out in the Portuguese public sector in April 2001, with education and healthcare workers taking or threatening strike action over a variety of demands and government reform proposals.

In April, higher education teaching trade unions relaunched the "higher education common platform of demands" (Plataforma Reivindicativa Comum do Ensino Superior), which includes a new proposal for the revision of the university teachers' career statute (Estatuto da Carreira Docente Universitária) and a demand to the Ministry of Education for a 5% salary increase for university teachers. University teachers also threatened to take strike action during the coming examinations period.

At the moment, according to the National Federation of Teaching Trade Unions (Federação Nacional dos Sindicatos dos Professores, FENPROF), graduate teachers who begin a full-time career in primary and secondary education earn more than their counterparts in universities. This does not conform with an agreement arrived at with the government in 1996. The minister of education considers "the threat of a strike by university teachers during the exams as ill-conceived, bearing in mind that negotiations are not yet even underway."

A climate of tension also prevails in infant and nursery schools, where teachers took strike action in April with a view to applying pressure in negotiations over a package of measures that include: a reduction in the number of years of service required before being able to take voluntary retirement; and a review of teachers' careers and improvement in their status. A further strike is planned for the forthcoming exam and assessment period.

In healthcare, a national strike was called in April by the Portuguese Nurses' Union (Sindicato dos Enfermeiros Portugueses SEP) in the light of the fact that there had been no moves towards a compromise that would allow negotiations to progress over a variety of issues (PT0103139F). Nurses are seeking earlier retirement, after 30 years of service at the age of 52, and not, as is currently the case, after 35 years of service and aged 57. They are also calling for the recruitment of more nurses.

According to the secretary of state for health sector human resources and modernisation, the country is short of 7,500 nurses and, in his view, "demands for earlier retirement are incompatible with a context of staff shortages." According to the leader of the SEP, the nurses shortage runs to 12,000.

The minister of health has offered the nurses more holidays, a shorter working week, professional insurance cover, high-risk subsidies and retirement benefits. However, the nurses have not accepted these proposals because they do not cover all nurses, but only those working in high-risk areas. The leader of the SEP states that strain and stress are not felt by nurses as a result of their place of work, but are due to carrying out the work itself. The union says that it is open to negotiating the phasing in of the right to earlier retirement, as the union believes that if this were to be introduced now, the number of nurses would drop even further. The Ministry of Health says that it will begin discussions on the issue only when there is a sufficient number of nurses in service. Projections suggest that by 2006, 13,000 new professional nurses will have qualified.

Meanwhile, the National Federation of Doctors (Federação Nacional dos Médicos, FNM) has also announced a strike to be held in June 2001. The issues in dispute are the renewal of the subsidy for the establishment of general practice clinics, payment of the debt in respect of this subsidy, and overtime work carried out in accident and emergency departments.