“Salaries, the revocation of SIADAP [Integrated Management and Performance Assessment System in Public Administration], the 35-hour work week for everyone and the valorisation of our careers. These are the four main demands that give substance to this initiative”, summarised Cristina Torres, president of the Local Administration Workers Union (STAL), affiliated with the CGTP, which called the protest.

The demonstration will take place from 2:30 pm on Friday, with a gathering at Praça da Figueira and a walk to the Ministry of Finance, in Lisbon.

According to Cristina Torres, STAL also participated in the negotiation of the common demand proposal with the Government, within the scope of the Common Front, but “the responses were few in quantity and quality” and resulted in a salary update of 56 euros for public administration workers, after the agreement between the Government, employers and the UGT in the Social Concertation.

“The country as it is, the prices that exist, the difficulties that workers face every day in making ends meet… We need to resolve this. The Government urgently needs to undertake an interim salary increase for a vast group of workers who have not seen anything resolved,” he considered.

The trade unionist admitted that responses were given, “and well”, to professions such as teachers, security forces, firefighters and INEM workers, “but then there is a huge mass of workers in general careers in public administration, operational assistants, technical assistants and senior technicians, who are subject to these 56 euros”.

Cristina Torres also considered that the current evaluation system “is not an evaluation system, it slows down the development of workers”, even with the change in force this year, which increased from 10 years to eight years the time that the overwhelming majority of workers need to achieve the points necessary to progress in their careers.

According to STAL, the growing “impoverishment policy” of workers has reached “historic levels” with inflation in recent years, as food products have risen by 27% and housing, electricity, water and gas by 17.7%, and the average monthly payment on housing loans has increased by around 60% compared to January 2022.

The union has argued that the problem can only be resolved with a salary adjustment of at least 15% (minimum of €150), applied to the 749 thousand employees.

Cristina Torres also demanded an increase in supplements for hardship and unhealthiness, which have had the same value since 2021, and that these subsidies be extended to other functions and categories of operational assistants.

STAL mainly works with local authority workers, such as operational assistants in schools, municipal and inter-municipal companies and workers in concessioned public services, such as water and waste.