Health Minister, Adalberto Campos Fernandes, said today that the proposal from Portugal’s nurses for an across-the-board pay rise of €400 a month was totally out of the question.
A nurses' union threatens another strike, this one set for October 16th, if the government does not meet a set of demands handed to the ministry which include a minimum increase of €400 a month for all nursing professionals, according to a union source.
Adalberto Campos Fernandes commented that the proposals from the union "are mostly sensible, but some are not" due to their adverse budgetary impact.
The Minister of Health considers that nurses' expectations are "legitimate," but "can not be unrealistic."
The Nurses' Union and the Ministry of Health are in ongoing negotiations, which so far have failed to resolve grievances and if the government does not respond positively before Friday, the union will recommend the new five-day strike,
According to Fernandes, the Government has presented concrete proposals that nurses who are still working 40-hours a week can, in 2018, move to a 35-hour week.
He also has set a date of October 16th, just after the delivery date of the 2018 State Budget draft, on which to start the discussions on a new collective bargaining agreement and next January wants to look at the nurses’ general career framework to bring some structure to what "currently is unstructured."
"It is about making sensible, balanced, proposals according to the budget framework that the country has for 2018, at a time when we are preparing the State Budget," said Fernandes.
The health minister said that he believes that "common sense will prevail," but that common sense does not mean giving way to unrealistic proposals or giving in to conditions that are unbearable for the state and the Portuguese public.
The 35-hour timetable for all nurses and the resumption of negotiations on the collective agreement were in the proposal presented today by the National Federation of Nurses' Unions, which includes the Nursing Union and the Independent Union of Nursing Professionals.
The other requirement from the national federation, relates to the value of the pay rise, it wants a minimum €400 increase "for all nurses" and not only for specialist nursing staff.
The Government had offered an immediate rise of €150 to specialist nurses as a transitional measure until broader negotiations take place in 2018. This offer was rejected by the union.
Another strike, called by the Union of Portuguese Nurses, has been called for 03, 04 and 05 of October which the ministry is working hard to avoid.
