A National Federation of Doctors (FNAM) this Thursday called a strike for October 24th, which will coincide with the suspension of the Public Service, as it considers that the guardianship is refusing to negotiate a medical career.
“Since there is a refusal by the Minister of Health to truly negotiate the medical career and, above all, because she has presented decisions that put the population at risk, we are announcing the doctors’ strike for October 24th across the country”the president of FNAM, Joana Bordalo e Sá, told Lusa.
Asked by Lusa whether the advance notice respected the minimum period of 10 working days before the strike, given that the day of the strike is one week away, the union leader clarified that advance notice was given on October 9th to workers, employers and the Government.
“The meeting we had today was not a real negotiation meeting. This was the presentation of an accomplished act with measures that we understand are really harmful to the population and the NHS”criticized the union leader. According to the person responsible, the guardianship provides for a concentration of emergency services at a regional level, meaning that “it will leave pregnant women and newborns without close care”.
The trade unionist recalled that “a regional emergency is not a metropolitan emergency”. “While in the Porto metropolitan area hospitals are located a few kilometers away from each other, this is not the case in most regions of the country”he noted.
Joana Bordalo e Sá also regretted the absence of an agenda and prior legislative proposals, considering that this contradicts “good practices in collective bargaining and good faith in negotiations”.
“This is a failure of protocol, it is a violation of good collective bargaining practices and it was already guessed that this meeting would hardly be productive, but even so, the FNAM was at this meeting and we brought our proposals for real solutions to have more doctors in the SNS, but the path of this Ministry of Health is not being that way”he stressed.
The union leader also warned that Ana Paula Martins “continues without a word about negotiating fair wages and decent working conditions that allow doctors to stay in the SNS”indicating that FNAM will meet with public health business entities under the mediation of the Directorate-General for Employment and Labor Relations (DGERT), next Monday, in Porto.
“It is a path that [o primeiro-ministro] Luís Montenegro and Ana Paula Martins do not want to continue, because, at the same time as we are witnessing all this, we continue to see the private sector investing millions – billions of investments that have already been announced for new health units in the private sector, because they know that the Luís Montenegro Government will give them a return”he accused
The trade unionist said that the Ministry was still “send the documents, possibly to a future meeting, to a last meeting”.
Public Administration workers will also be on strike on October 24thdemanding an increase in salaries, the enhancement of careers, the restoration of public employment and the defense of public services, in a protest that aims to draw attention to the need to reinforce dignity and stability in the state sector.