Nurses' union considers protocol insufficient

The Portuguese Nurses Union (SEP) said this Wednesday that the Ministry of Health will present a proposal to regulate the Collective Labor Agreement, noting that the negotiation protocol has not yet been signed, as it considers the wording to be “insufficient.”

" We did not sign the protocol today because its wording is insufficient (...). Therefore, a new meeting is scheduled for September 3rd," SEP president José Carlos Martins told reporters.

Speaking to the press after meeting for around two hours with the Minister of Health, Ana Paula Martins, at the Ministry of Health in Lisbon, the union leader stated that the ministry “will present a proposal that aims to regulate” the Collective Labor Agreement (ACT).

"We believe it would be worthwhile to discuss this matter only after the Labor Code has been amended, because a collective bargaining agreement will be subject to the Labor Code, which is currently being amended," he emphasized.

According to José Carlos Martins, the Ministry of Health also agreed to move forward with other matters, such as points, retroactive payments, retroactive payments since 2018, performance evaluations, and public exams.

"The Ministry of Health has agreed—and we agree—to discuss changing the performance evaluation for nursing competitions. (...) We will once again discuss the issue of points and retroactive pay. We also intend to discuss regulating working hours through a collective bargaining agreement," he noted.

José Carlos Martins regretted, however, that the government “assumes, in a brutal context of shortage and overtime and exhaustion of nurses, to hire only 25% to 50% of the nurses that the local health units [ULS] proposed”.

"The minister stated that (...) she is financially constrained and, therefore, will only authorize hiring between 25% and 50% of the volume proposed by the ULS and IPO [oncology institutes]. We find this unacceptable and, therefore, we will develop a set of actions to highlight the serious shortages facing nurses," he emphasized.

In turn, the Portuguese Nurses' Union Association (ASPE), which was also received by Ana Paula Martins this Wednesday, announced that it had signed a negotiation agreement to create the first Collective Labor Agreement for nursing in the National Health Service (SNS).

"We signed the protocol today, despite disagreeing with the protocol's limited scope. However, there is a second point that allows us to work on other matters, namely the adjustment of the Integrated Public Service Performance Assessment System (SIADAP) to nursing careers. There are other documents, such as competitive procedures, and others that need to be worked on," said ASPE President Lúcia Leite.

According to the union leader, the Government has shown itself willing to initiate dialogue , with ASPE expecting “serious negotiations”.

In addition to having also scheduled a new meeting for the beginning of September, the union force indicated that it will meet with the guardianship on the 24th of the same month.

Hours earlier, the platform of five nurses' unions also signed the negotiation protocol.

"This meeting essentially aimed to sign a negotiation protocol whose agenda will be the creation of a Collective Bargaining Agreement for nurses. It's the only profession in the healthcare sector that doesn't yet have a Collective Bargaining Agreement, and that's the commitment we made to the Ministry of Health," said Fernando Parreira, spokesperson for the group and president of the Independent Union of Nursing Professionals (SIPEnf).