Want government to open negotiations on revising Professional Statute
The National Association of Professional Firefighters (ANBP) and the National Union of Professional Firefighters (SNBP) have called a national demonstration for October 10 in Lisbon.
Scheduled for the day the government submits its State Budget to Parliament, the demo will include a march between the Ministry of Internal Administration (MAI) and parliament.
In a statement, the ANBP and the SNBP said they “are demanding that the government quickly open negotiations on revising the Professional Statute, updating the risk allowance and indexing the salary scale for sapper firefighters to the national minimum wage.
“They also demand that the current pay scale for sapper firefighters be corrected by more than €52, that a risk supplement be awarded and that the ‘Permanent Availability Supplement’ be updated, among other things”, writes Lusa.
“If the government does not open the negotiation process and does not accede to these demands already submitted to the MAI, the ANBP and SNBP will hold a national strike with all Portuguese firefighters by the end of the year, in addition to the national demonstration”, the statement explains.
Both organisations believe they have “the legitimacy to engage in other, more extreme forms of struggle”, because professional firefighters have been “without changes or career development’ for 22 years” – during which time the behaviour particularly of forest fires has changed markedly.
The statement stresses that both entities believe the government will act to guarantee that professional firefighters “have all the conditions to ensure the safety and well-being of the population”.
A week ago, the National Union of Sapper Firefighters (SNBS) announced a national demonstration in Lisbon for October 2, due to the “serious problems” in the sector, and what it sees as the government’s “indifferent and unacceptable response”.
Speaking to Lusa news agency at the time, SNBS president Ricardo Cunha said that the aim of the October 2 demonstration is “to show that sapper firefighters are not happy with the government, which has broken its word”, recalling that the secretaries of state for civil protection and local administration had promised to meet with the union’s representatives by June, but this did not happened.
At issue is a pay rise promised by the previous Socialist government.
Ricardo Cunha said that sapper firefighters are demanding a pay rise to compensate for the rise in inflation – identical to the one given to police officers in 2023 by the previous government, of around €100.
According to the SNBS, there are around 3,000 professional firefighters in the country, spread across 25 municipalities.
Source: LUSA
