The National Union of Professional Firefighters (SNBP) announced an action to highlight the “urgent need for improved working conditions and career appreciation for professionals,” emphasizing their “essential role in protecting and ensuring public safety.”
The SNBP stated that the protest is against the government’s proposed labor package, which allows “dismissal without just cause and its cheapening,” the “generalization of job precariousness and instability,” the “imposition of the hours bank,” the “destruction of collective bargaining,” and the “attack on maternity and paternity rights,” as well as the right to strike.
Firefighters are demanding risk allowances and recognition of the profession as one of rapid wear and tear, along with “regulation of the entire firefighting and civil protection sector” with “properly structured and approved” careers, alongside “recognized and approved” professional statutes, among other demands.
Thursday’s general strike against the government’s draft labor law reform will be the first strike to bring together both union federations, CGTP-IN and UGT, since June 2013, when Portugal was under the intervention of the ‘troika.’
The proposed changes in the government’s labor law reform cover various areas, including parenting, dismissals, extension of contract terms, and sectors that now require minimum services in case of strikes.
