Nurses fight for career path restructuring

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Portuguese nurses' trade unions launched rotating strike action in February 1999, in a dispute over the revision of nurses' career paths, in response to recent changes affecting other professional groups.

Trade unions representing nurses in the North and Centre of Portugal launched strikes in February 1999 in state-run hospitals and health clinics. The strike action was scheduled to continue indefinitely, affecting healthcare facilities on a rotating basis by region - with the aim of paralysing one hospital at a time, in a different part of the country each day, in order to give the strike greater visibility among the general public.

The unions had been negotiating over nurses' professional career progression with the public health administration, with negotiations focusing on the following issues:

• revision of nurses' professional statute to bring it into line with those of comparable professions. Disparities between nurses and other professions have been increased by recent revisions of other public service workers's career paths. Despite having comparable education and identical status, the gap between the statute for nurses and those for upper-level public service technicians, elementary school teachers and social workers has been widening. Currently, nurses finish their training with a licentiate (degree), while their pay-level status is based on the baccalaureate level (ie, completion of secondary schooling);

• pay increases. Because of the definition of the pay index for their profession, nurses have lost ground in comparison with other groups;

• lack of access to certain jobs. Regulations that are currently being drawn up for state-run health clinics exclude nurses from management positions, making these positions open only to doctors; and

• improved working conditions, taking into account occupational risks and the arduous nature of the work when calculating length of service, ensuring full retirement pensions after 30 years' service.

The nurses' strike follows a recent controversial strike by doctors (PT9902129F), while healthcare assistants, whose career path has not been revised in 20 years, were preparing to strike in March 1999.

The government was not expecting this strike because revision of nursing pay scales was negotiated in 1998 and scheduled to be phased in gradually by 2000. At another negotiating table another union, the Union of Portuguese Nurses (Sindicato dos Enfermeiros de Portugal, SEP), had come to an agreement with the Minister of Health and these pay scales had already been published.

Meanwhile, elections are being held to form a Professional Association of Nurses (Ordem dos Enfermeiros) - such professional associations are the normal form of organisation for the liberal professions in Portugal. The Association will deal with defending the profession's interests as a whole and will have different aims from the trade unions, such as improving nursing education and training. According to would-be representatives of the new Association, Portugal has been experiencing a shortage of nurses: there are only 3.2 nurses per 1,000 inhabitants in Portugal compared with a European average of 5.2 per 1,000, while some nurses working in Portugal come from neighbouring Spain.