Strike to affect ultrasounds/ x-rays/ hospital pharmacies and therapies
Senior diagnostic and therapeutic technicians in Portugal’s State healthcare sector have begun a two-day strike, starting today in the North and Central regions and extending tomorrow to Lisbon/ Vale do Tejo, the Alentejo and Algarve. The issue, as with almost all current strikes and demonstrations, is a demand for the implementation of provisions for better pay and careers.
The stoppage was initially called by the National Union of Senior Health Technicians in the Diagnostic and Therapeutic Areas (STSS) – part of the CGTP union federation, Portugal’s largest – but the Union of Senior Diagnostic and Therapeutic Technicians (Sindite) and the Federation of Public Administration Unions (Fesap), part of the UGT federation, ended up announcing a strike for the same days.
In addition to these two-days of industrial action, demonstrations are scheduled, one in Porto, in front of the São João Hospital, from 11.30 am today, and another in Lisbon, in front of the Ministry of Health, from 11.30 am tomorrow, for technicians to publicly express their discontent at the lack of response from the ministry.
The strike could disrupt complementary diagnostic tests (clinical analyses, ultrasounds, X-rays, among others), as well as activities in the areas of therapy (hospital pharmacies, physiotherapy, speech therapy or occupational therapy).
Senior diagnostic and therapeutic technicians (TSDTs) are protesting against what they say is the incorrect application of a law that introduced changes to the career transition and pay repositioning rules; the incorrect application, to date, of the joint circular from the Central Administration of the Health System (ACSS) and the Directorate-General for the Treasury and Finance (DGTF) to technicians with an individual employment contract, and the incorrect allocation of points – worth 1.5 points/year – resulting from the TSDT performance evaluation.
Quoted in a statement when the strike was called, STSS president, Luís Dupont, said that members “are tired of empty promises” from ministry officials.
“Everything has a limit, especially when reason is on the side of the workers, who can’t wait any longer to express their displeasure and anger, because most institutions, with the application of the circular, have caused chaos and inequality among professionals, namely because there is still no definition of the allocation of 1.5 points by the Ministry of Health,” he explainedd.
The lack of communication of points for TSDTs until 2024, “preventing the regular development of (union members’) careers,” the refusal to revise the salary scale for technicians in parity with the senior technical civil service career -with effect on all salary positions, especially the first stage – are other demands.
The strike covers all senior diagnostic and therapeutic technicians working in Portugal’s SNS National Health Service, albeit minimum services required by law are guaranteed.
This stoppage comes after the STSS cancelled a planned strike in May 2023 because it recognised that the health ministry had presented “concrete proposals” and made commitments to improve salaries and careers.
It has to be noted that Minister of Health Manuel Pizarro has practically disappeared from public view in the last few weeks of pre-election frenzy.
Source material: LUSA
