The platform of nine teachers' unions admits to strike national exams if the Ministry of Education continues to refuse to recover frozen service time
In addition to the district strikes that began this Monday and the strikes on final assessments, the unions are also considering a strike on national exams, the secretary-general of the National Teachers Federation (Fenprof) told journalists before entering a meeting with Ministry of Education officials.
"What is on the table is a proposal that has no head or tail," criticised Mário Nogueira, claiming that the ministry "is more concerned with finding ways to exclude than to include" teachers.
The criticisms are directed at the draft decree-law to minimise the impacts of the freezing of careers and are aimed at teachers in service since 30 August 2005, in other words, those who went through the two freezing periods during the last economic crisis.
The proposal is that these teachers recover the time they spent waiting for a vacancy in the 4th and 6th steps from the year of unfreezing (2018), that they be exempt from vacancies for access to the 5th and 7th, in addition to the reduction of one year in the duration of the step for those who were also waiting for a vacancy, but are already above the 6th.
Mário Nogueira recalled that on March 13 the platform handed the ministry a proposal that demanded the full recovery of the frozen service time - around six years and six months - as well as the end of quotas and vacancies for access to the 5th and 7th steps.
In alternative, the unions received a proposal from the Ministry that they consider to be "discriminatory" and "unfair" because it "excludes more than it includes" and "creates more asymmetries" by only covering those teachers who always had full annual working hours during the two freezing periods.
The proposal "does not recover a single day of frozen time, when teachers do not give up a single day", Mário Nogueira added before entering the negotiation meeting.
Meanwhile, the other three unions - the Union of All Educational Professionals (Stop), the National Union of Graduate Teachers (SNPL) and the Union of Primary School Teachers and Educators (SIPPEP) - left the meeting with ministry officials.
Speaking to journalists, the Stop coordinator said that the scheduled strikes would be maintained, given the lack of compromise by the ministry, which kept virtually unchanged its proposal that leaves out the demands that continue to motivate strikes in schools.
André Pestana recalled that strikes are scheduled for next week and another strike period that coincides with the time of the assessment tests.
André Pestana recalled Stop's three main demands: equality for teachers from the mainland with those from the islands, who have already been guaranteed full recovery of their time of service; the end of quotas and vacancies for access to the 5th and 7th grades and better professional and salary conditions for non-teaching staff.