Syndicates say it would just have been ‘another PR exercise’ ahead of elections
More than half the police syndicates called by the Ministry of Internal Affairs for a meeting today have refused, on the grounds that the event would have simply been another PR exercise/ political posturing.
The government has ‘cancelled’ the meeting, confirm news reports.
It was scheduled for 2.30 this afternoon, and was “intended to discuss the proposed amendment to regulations governing paid service”.
At least, that was the way it was ‘put out’ to the nation’s press.
No proposed amendment was forwarded to the unions – and they stress what they want does not require discussions, anyway.
With the latest polls showing that voting intentions are swaying more to the centre-right, police appear to have opted to sit the next few weeks out, rather than spend time in negotiations with a ministry with which they are already very disillusioned.
Talking to reporters, Paulo Santos representing ASPP (the PSP’s main syndicate), said the meeting was “an attempt to give the impression, at the end of its mandate, that the government is available to dialogue with syndicates – suggesting it will resolve a “structural matter – and we don’t want to be part of this discussion”.
Indeed, there is no need for ‘discussion’, he explains: the government simply has to make a decision (to treat all police forces equally, and give the same ‘risk allowance’ to PSP and GNR forces that it has granted PJ police).
“The government has already had plenty of time to move forward and can move forward on this issue, because paid services are not subject to collective bargaining, in other words, the government can already increase the value of paid services tomorrow without contacting the unions,” he reiterated. ND
Source material: SIC Notícias
