The Independent Doctors Union (SIM) announced today that it maintains the regional and internal doctors’ strikes called for August and September, accusing the Government of being “totally insensitive” to the demands.
The announcement was made to journalists by SIM general secretary Jorge Roque da Cunha at the union’s headquarters in Lisbon.
According to Roque da Cunha, who was speaking on the last of the three days of the national strike of doctors of the National Health Service (SNS) called by the union, said that the proposal for a salary increase of 1.6% sent this morning by the Government to the unions “does not make any sense”, translating into net increases of 30 to 40 euros, and even lower for internal doctors.
On the other hand, according to SIM, the proposal for a new regime of full dedication to the NHS implies “highly painful conditions” for doctors, such as performing 300 hours of overtime work.
“We don’t see much chance of reaching an agreement,” he said, accusing the government of being “totally insensitive”.
Government and unions return to the negotiating table on Friday.
“It is in the hands of the Government to avoid strikes”, stressed Roque da Cunha, calling on the guardianship “to have a serious negotiation”, in which the SIM promises to counter the Government’s proposal.
Among other things, the SIM is calling for a “decent pay scale”.
Negotiations, which were due to end in June, started in 2022.
