The Government has not yet explained to civil servant unions what exactly it wants to change in the sickness, strike and vacation regimes of the public service, an intention expressed in the State Budget proposal for 2025 through a request for legislative authorization. But the unions left this Wednesday’s meetings with the Secretary of State for Public Administrations with the guarantee that there will be no “fundamental changes” and that they will be aimed at “simplifying and improving.”
This is a request for legislative authorization from Parliament that appears in the State Budget proposal for 2025, but is not explained in detail. These requests are intended to modify articles related to the justification of the illness and means of proof, exemption from the agreement of the agency or service of origin for mobility, consolidation of mobility and remuneration for mobility, legal regime for the transfer of public interest , right to vacation and prior notice of strike.
The Government limits itself to saying, in the OE proposal, that this legislative authorization aims to “facilitate the identity of the disease certification regimes between workers in the general regime and the convergent social protection regime”, that is, between Social Security and the CGA, and “provide for changes in the mobility consolidation regime.” The legislative authorization has a duration of 365 days.
The unions—Frente Comum (CGTP), FESAP and STE (UGT)—left the meetings with the Government this Wednesday without knowing with certainty what will change. José Abraão, leader of FESAP, says that the Secretary of State, Marisa Garrido, informed them that there will be changes in “simplify and improve”. “He didn’t go very far in explaining it,” he stated, regretting that the issue was not referred to the unions in the meeting prior to the delivery of the State Budget proposal.
“When we found out about the change to the strike law, we immediately turned on a red light. As a matter of principle, we have always said that the more a right is regulated, the more it is conditioned. What do they want to do? They say it is to simplify and improve. (…) We hope there are no setbacks“, he emphasizes.
María Helena Rodrigues, from STE, stated that she has a guarantee from the Secretary of State that the legislative changes will be prepared They will not be “fundamental changes”.
The union leader believes that they will not be able to equate the medical leave regime of Caixa Geral de Aposentações (where public employees who began working before 2006 are located) and Social Security, and that it is more favorable in the first case than in the second case. In any case, the STE would not accept changes that would eliminate an “acquired right” from the contents of the CGA.
This is one of the big differences that separate CGA from Social Security. In the CGA, during the first three days of illness no salary is paid, but from the fourth to the 30th day, 90% of the remuneration is owed. In the case of Social Security, the subsidy is only granted from the fourth day (in the first three days you do not receive anything either) and corresponds to 55% of the reference salary until the 30th.
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Sebastião Santana, from the Common Front, criticizes that the Government wants a “white card” legislate on issues such as certification of illnesses, strikes, vacations and mobility regimes for public services.
“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.
The unions hope to know in more detail what the Government’s intentions are at the next meetings (the next one will be on Friday, October 18). The Observer questioned the Ministry of Finance about the meaning of the changes and is awaiting a response.
Source: Observadora
