A five-day strike organised by the nurses’ union against the increase in the weekly working hours from 35 to 40 is planned across Portugal and will affect the Algarve on October 17.
In a press conference last Friday in Lisbon, the union demanded negotiations over the maintenance of the 35-hour workweek for nurses working for the National Health Service, as well as a review of the salary grid.
José Carlos Martins, the union leader, said that the government did not expect to negotiate the union’s entire proposal but that the Ministry of Health was hoping for a peaceful settlement.
SEP is now waiting for the Ministry of Health to present a negotiations calendar to discuss all proposals made, otherwise the union will be forced to take the matter to court.
“If the ministries of Health and Finance agree to negotiate each one of our proposals within an appropriate timeframe we may call off the strike,” José Carlos Martins admitted.
In the meantime, four-hour strikes between 8am and 12pm are scheduled for: October 15 in Santarém, Lisbon, Setúbal and Madeira; October 16 in Portalegre, Évora and Beja; October 17 in the Algarve and the Azores; October 18 in the central areas of the country and on October 22 in Viana do Castelo, Braga and Porto.
