Updating

The Government proposed to the civil servant unions to increase by 4.5 euros the proposal made in the previous meeting for the remuneration base (the minimum wage in the State) from 870.5 euros to 875 euros. With this new proposal, unlike what happened with the previous one, the salary agreement signed between the previous Executive and UGT is fulfilled. For the rest of the salaries, it maintained its intention to comply with the agreement: increases of about 52 euros for salaries up to 1,754 euros and 2% from there.

The Government “maintains at least 52 euros at 2%”, and moves forward with the “proposal to increase the remuneration base of the public service by 4.5 euros with respect to the proposal it previously presented, raising it to 875 euros, without doing a commitment to exempt from the IRS for these workers. These five euros would mean less money at the end of the month,” criticizes Sebastião Santana, from the Frente Comum, the first union structure that met this Wednesday with the Secretary of State for Public Administrations, Marisa Garrido. The Common Front has scheduled a demonstration in Lisbon for October 25.

The minimum wage in the State should be 50 cents above the private sector: 870.50 euros

Sebastião Santana considers that there is “a total absence of will to negotiate, there was no evolution from the last meeting to this one in terms of salaries worthy of that name.” The negotiation was not closed by the Government and there will still be at least one meeting.

The initial proposal for the salary base was 870.5 euros, an increase of 5.9% or 48.67 euros, so it did not meet the minimum wage agreed in the public service. Now, this is an increase of 53.17 euros compared to the current 821.83 euros. The new minimum wage in the State is five euros higher than the national minimum wage (870 euros). No proposal was made to modify the food subsidy.

In the report that accompanies the State Budget for 2025, the Government foresees that the revaluation of 52.63 euros by a minimum of 2% will cost 597 million euros.

The proposed increases do not satisfy union demands. The Common Front of the CGTP demands increases of at least 15%, a minimum of 150 euros per worker and also an increase in the food subsidy from six to 10.50 euros per day. FESAP, which affects UGT, in turn requests a salary increase of 6.5% in 2025, with a minimum update of 85 euros for all workers, as well as an increase in the per diem to eight euros per day. And the Trade Union Front, led by the STE, demands an update of salaries of at least 6% and an increase in the per diem to 10 euros.

The Government does not explain how it wants to change the sickness, strike and vacation regimes of public services

Sebastião Santana, from the Frente Comum, also criticizes that the Government wants “carte blanche” to legislate on issues such as certification of illnesses, strikes, holidays and mobility regimes for public services. The union structure did not explain exactly what the Government’s intention is expressed in the State Budget proposal for 2025.

“It is unacceptable that the Government attempts this carte blanche,” he stated, in reference to the registration of the intention to move forward with a request for legislative authorization from Parliament to modify several articles of the general law on labor in public functions that appears in the proposal. of State Budgets for 2025.

“When I have good intentions I have no problem expressing them, I think we are all like that. If the Government has not already expressed them and does not want to say why it wants this legislative change, we believe that it will not be to increase the vacation days of public administration workers or to facilitate the right to strike. Let’s see, I hope I’m wrong,” he said.