Another sector that has emerged from initial talks with Portugal’s new government deeply unimpressed is that of the country’s ‘court officials’ (funcionários de justiça) who have rejected salary increases proposed by the government, warning that problems will lead to “many crimes prescribing”, due to the crippling lack of staff that is one of the various reasons for ongoing industrial action. António Marçal, president of the syndicate of court officials, has stressed that “what the minister of justice did was mock those who work”. He claims the minister “proposed an increase that is not an increase – not least because she linked this increase to our continuing to be enslaved, to being forced to work after hours without earning a single cent and that is simply unacceptable…”
