The strike is set to end at the end of the year and “will delay processes” because overtime is “effectively falling on the ‘back office’ and not so much on the ‘front office’, because the “front office has operating hours” for customers that do not include overtime, Artur Cerqueira, leader of the National Federation of Trade Unions of Public and Social Workers (FNSTFPS), told Lusa.

“This strike notice allows workers, as a group, not to work more than the mandatory 150 hours of overtime” for public service, until the end of the year, he explained, highlighting that this call is a way of responding to the excessive workload imposed on AIMA employees.

“This strike will last until the end of the year”, always “with the expectation that it can be called off, if AIMA takes the necessary measures to create the personnel map with a new number of workers sufficient” to respond to pending requests and the demand for immigrants.

The FNSTFPS list of demands supporting the notice mentions several problems at AIMA, including the lack of internal regulations, the lack of internal communication, “undersized teams, which results in an overload of work and high levels of stress and anxiety”.

According to the document, which Lusa had access to, many of the employees “have already exceeded 150 hours of overtime” in 2024 (the legal limit for public servants), but “they continue to work overtime without being paid”.

“The situation we have reached is the result of a series of erroneous policies by several governments”, but “the important and urgent thing is for the Government to assume its responsibilities and for all measures to be taken, as a matter of urgency”, putting “an end to the trampling of the rights of workers and citizens”, the union also states.

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