Despite considering that it is the Government and the Assembly of the Republic who have to solve the problems that affect teachers, the unions will appeal to the European Commission to intervene.
The platform of nine unions of education professionals will take teachers’ problems to the representation of the European Commission in Lisbon on Wednesday, asking it to intervene with the Portuguese government.
According to information from the National Federation of Education (FNE), the nine union organizations will be received by the coordinator and deputy coordinator of the representation in Lisbon of the European Commission, whom will reveal “persistent inequalities”.
“Particularly in relation to teachers with a fixed-term contract, but also among full-time teachers, with overtaking in the career and in competitions for teacher placement,” says the FNE.
They will also address other issues, such as “restrictions on the exercise of union activity, with some schools imposing minimum services when union meetings are held, and the right to strike.”
The union organizations understand that there is “room for the diligence that the European instances can develop”, although they consider that “problems affecting teachers have to be resolved by national authoritiesnamely, the Government and the Assembly of the Republic”.
“As regards the European Parliament, contacts will be made through the political parties that elected the MEPs, meetings having already been requested from all of them; The purpose of this meeting is to send the European Commission various information, requesting an intervention with the Portuguese Government”, says the FNE.
For the unions, a possible recourse to the European legal instances will only be possible once the national instances have been exhausted, “with which they are developing the essential actions, through which they seek to solve the problems of overtaking in the race, as well as challenging the illegal minimum services that were imposed on teachers on strike days.”
In addition to the FNE, the platform includes the ASPL – Trade Union Association of Licensed Teachers, the National Federation of Teachers (Fenprof), Pró-Ordem, the National Democratic Union of Teachers (Sindep), the Independent Union of Teachers and Educators (SIPE ) and the National Congress of Professors Graduated from Polytechnics and Universities (SPLIU), starting at 3:00 p.m.
Source: Observadora
