The workers of the Tax and Customs Authority (AT) decided this Tuesday to call a two-day strike, on December 19 and 20, to demand professional advancement, better working conditions and review of the salary scale.
In statements to the Lusa agency at the end of a general assembly of tax workers called by the Tax Workers Union (STI), the president of that structure also stated that, “if nothing happens in the meantime”, another strike is also on the horizon. the table , this time for an indefinite period, throughout the year 2025.
“If nothing happens on the part of the Government, the forms of struggle will be toughened for next year, starting on January 1, 2025,” guaranteed Gonçalo Rodrigues, although assuming the “expectation that the Government has the common sense not to Let things come to an end.” that point.”
Before the December strike, the STI scheduled a rally of union delegates at the door of the Ministry of Finance for next week, the 25th, to warn Minister Joaquim Miranda Sarmento that “letting this progress continue is bad for the country.” , it is bad for the Government and that is not the objective” of the union.
“The union tried everything. We were in these six or seven months of [novo] Government always in good faith, trying to ensure that the Government was also in good faith. We gave this Government time to arrive, deal with the files and understand what was happening. “We always acted in good faith, but the Government did not act in good faith with us and I have some hope that they will change their position.”said Gonçalo Rodriges.
The Lusa agency contacted the Ministry of Finance, waiting for a reaction.
According to the director of the STI, in the general assembly that took place throughout the morning of this Tuesday, via telematics, “guaranteedly more than 3,500” AT employees participated, which led to the closure of 80% of the services of Country finances.
General assembly of tax workers closes 80% of Finance services
“It was the largest meeting in the history of AT workers, even before AT existed. Therefore, it was the largest meeting ever held in the tax authorities.”he emphasized.
Convened “with an agenda item, which was the definition of forms of struggle in the short, medium and long term,” the meeting ended up serving the tax authorities “to say everything that is in their soul, what the concerns are. and why they are sad and angry,” said the STI president.
And, he highlighted, “the main reason for discontent is that the Government considers all the State careers to be very important, but AT, which has to find resources so that other careers can function, considers them irrelevant.”
According to Gonçalo Rodrigues, this was “said directly, in all the letters, by the Government” to the union, in a meeting last September with the Secretaries of State for Public Administration and Finance. Already the Minister of Finance “did not even find time” to listen to the STIhe lamented.
Another of the demands of Treasury officials is the review of the salary scale, which according to the union is “worse than what they had in 1999.”
“The Government, for other professions, promises increases of 20% until 2027 (doctors increased in 2023 and will increase again in 2024, teachers have recovered all the service time they had) and we lost everything? We lost our SIADAP points [Sistema Integrado de Gestão e Avaliação do Desempenho na Administração Pública]”Have we lost our evaluation points and do we have a worse salary scale than what we had in 1999?” asks the president of the STI.
At this morning’s meeting The union leader also says that “there has been a lot of talk about burnout” and in the “many problems related to tax inspection and the lack of authority to effectively combat tax fraud and evasion.”
Highlighting that, “although corruption is a crime under the jurisdiction of the Public Ministry”, the AT “has a decisive role, because there are no corrupt people without money outside the tax system”, Gonçalo Rodrigues affirms that the “role of authority” of the tax authorities “have been completely degraded.”
“In short, AT has hit rock bottom,” says the president of the STI, warning that the strike on December 19 and 20 – with a demonstration in Lisbon on the 19th – will be “only the first” of several, if nothing changes. meanwhile.
Source: Observadora
