It is a mission that school principals used to do without. They will be forced to choose who can and who cannot go on strike —between teaching and non-teaching staff— to guarantee the minimum services in schools as of February 1, news reported by Jornal de Notícias.

“The directors will have to decide who cannot strike. It doesn’t seem fair. It is one more problem that the Ministry of Education cannot solve and that it puts in the hands of the management”, says Manuel Pereira, president of the National Association of School Leaders (ANDE), quoted by the newspaper.

Listen to “Prompt Response” here: Luís Gonçalves da Silva, a specialist in Labor Law, defends that the strike “is not a sacrosanct right”.

Minimum services for teachers. “It is important, the strike is not a sacrosanct right”

The situation is one of “lack of consideration and respect”, considers the director of the Serpa Pinto de Cinfães General School Association.

The opinion of the other association of directors is identical. “It will be each school, according to its characteristics, that will implement the minimum services,” defended Filinto Lima, president of the National Association of Directors of Public Schools and Groups (ANDAEP). “It’s an added responsibility that directors used to do without.”

A circular from the DGESTE, cited by the JN, defines What is the minimum human resources required? have the school in operation, determining that “the management of each group of schools or non-grouped school must take the necessary measures, in terms of distribution of services, with a view to ensuring compliance with these services.”

Teachers must perform minimum services during the strike, decides arbitral tribunal

The decision of the Arbitration College does not oblige to teach

Without an agreement between the Ministry of Education and the teachers on the need to have minimum services in schools, given the indefinite strike that gained strength at the beginning of the 2nd period, the decision was sent, as the law dictates, to a College of Arbitration.

Thus, the decision was that as of February 1, the minimum services will be imposed. However, these do not imply teaching. “The cumulative effect of these strikes has already reached the point, as far as teaching activity is concerned, where Failure to establish minimum services jeopardizes the satisfaction of social needs imperative (while it is true that only in this circumstance should they be fixed)”, read the sentence on Friday.

On Friday, Filinto Lima considers that, deep down, the The minimum services would be similar to the time when schools closed due to the pandemic: guarantee school meals for needy students and support those with special educational needs.

After reading the ruling, it is clear that the Arbitration College leaves a message for the near future: it cannot “ignore that there is an intention —more or less assumed— to provoke the successive strikes that have been taking place for nearly two months ”. almost continuous, if they are going to be maintained, apparently, ‘indefinitely’”. Is that could become “unbearable damage to the right of access to education and the right to learn, especially for the neediest and most vulnerable students.”