Teachers on strike at the end of classes starting this Monday

Teachers start, this Monday, a strike at the last time of classes, in a stoppage called by the platform of nine union organizations against the new recruitment regime and for the recovery of all service time.

In addition to the strike at the last teaching period for each teacher, strikes were also launched for overtime, overwork and the non-teaching component, with no impact on students’ classes.

“Fighting actions will not be lacking so that we can pressure the Government to solve problems that are massacring a profession in which there are fewer and fewer people”, had warned the secretary general of the National Federation of Teachers (Fenprof) on the day that the platform informal announced a new set of strikes.

Days later, the Government approved the new teacher management and recruitment regime, which had been being negotiated between the Ministry of Education and sector unions for more than five months, without reaching an agreement.

In the diploma, measures that teachers’ representatives had classified as “red lines” remained, namely the possibility of teachers with incomplete hours teaching in two schools and the creation of pedagogical zone councils, made up of school directors, to manage schedules.

The main claim is, however, the recovery of all the service time that was frozen (six years, six months and 23 days) that the union organizations say they do not abdicate.

On this topic, the Government presented on Wednesday proposals with the aim of correcting asymmetries resulting from the freezing period, with effects on the career progression of the most affected teachers, but which also deserved a negative note.

“There is a set of asymmetries, which are not clearly understood, but which can be mitigated, but there are others that will deepen”, said the leader of Fenprof, representing the nine organizations.

Before that, Mário Nogueira had stated that the end of the strikes planned until the end of the school year was in the hands of the Ministry of Education and depended on how the negotiations took place, but after learning about the Government’s proposals, he said that they did not change the plans.

The union platform will also return to strikes by districts, between April 17th and May 12th, with a national strike and demonstration planned for June 6th, and a strike at the end of the year assessments.

In addition to recovering length of service, they demand the elimination of evaluation quotas and vacancies for access to the 5th and 7th levels of the teaching career, the alteration of the Mobility due to Sickness regime, the reduction of bureaucracy in schools, a special retirement plan and regularization of working hours.

Currently, another strike is taking place, convened by the Union of All Education Professionals, which has been going on since December.