Strike called by Algarve nurses to address long-standing issues which are “still unresolved”
Nurses of the Algarve’s Local Health Unit (ULS) have called a strike on August 22 and 23 to demand better working conditions, wages and schedules.
The announcement was made by the Portuguese Nurses’ Union (SEP), which said the strike will affect public hospitals in Faro, Portimão and Lagos, as well as basic emergency services in Albufeira, Loulé and Vila Real de Santo António, the São Brás rehabilitation centre and Loulé convalescence unit on the morning and afternoon of Thursday, August 22. On the second day, the strike will focus on primary healthcare – meaning health centres.
“Delays to solutions and the worsening of working conditions continue to be responsible for the increase in requests for resignation and absenteeism, particularly due to the deterioration of the physical and mental health of nurses,” the union lamented in a statement, noting that there are long-standing issues “still unresolved”, while “new ones have no solution in sight.”
The union is asking the Algarve Local Health Unit to solve the issue of “outstanding hours,” demanding the “payment at twice the hourly rate for overtime under the 35-hour regime, meaning 200%”. SEP also urges ULS to hire more “specialist and management nurses” to compensate for the number of nurses who have retired.
The union also demands changes to the work schedule regulations, describing as “unacceptable the imposition of 12-hour shifts, which are illegal, particularly in emergency and basic emergency services,” arguing that it is necessary to respect the rest periods of professionals at a time when the region is “in need of 1,000 additional nurses.”
Career progression and retroactive payments, debts owed to nurses who worked overtime during the Covid 19 pandemic, and the “lack of materials and drugs, particularly vaccines, in primary healthcare,” are other issues the SEP wants the Algarve ULS administration to address.
According to the union, it is also necessary to “pay incentives in family health units of model B” and “hire more nurses” for family health units of model B.
“How many more nurses will have to leave before the ULS pays retroactive wages, pays debts, stops over-relying on overtime, allowing nurses to organise their personal and professional lives, and values and respects the nurses?” SEP questioned.
The lack of response to the professionals’ demands, the deterioration of working conditions, and the insufficient number of nurses are increasingly hindering the work of nursing professionals in the Algarve, the statement concluded.
