The Minister of Internal Affairs said today that “all the proposals” of the unions representing the SEF inspectors were taken into account in the restructuring process of the Foreigners and Borders Service and called for an end to the strike.
“All the proposals that the different unions made, namely and very particularly the investigation and inspection career union, have been guaranteed,” José Luís Carneiro told journalists, on the sidelines of the signing ceremony of the inter-administrative contract for the requalification of the GNR territorial post of Cinfães, district of Viseu, in the global value of one million euros.
The minister appealed to the SEF inspectors to “strike again”, since “their exercise at this time creates very significant inconvenience to those who use the airports”.
The Union of Investigation, Inspection and Border Inspectors (SIIFF) started on Saturday several strike periods at the Lisbon airport, a strike that was extended today to the airports of Porto, Faro and Madeira.
The strike at Lisbon’s Humberto Delgado Airport took place between Saturday and today from 05:00 to 10:00 am, and is also scheduled for the same time on May 27 to 29, June 3 to 5, June 10 to 12, June 17 to 19, and June 24 to 26.
At the airports of Porto, Faro and Madeira, the strike will take place today and on May 29 and June 5, 12, 19 and 26.
At stake is the uncertainty about the future of SEF inspectors after the government approved, on April 6th, the decree-law that establishes the transition regime for SEF workers following the restructuring process.
The minister pointed out that, as part of the transition process for SEF workers, the inspectors will be transferred en bloc to the Judicial Police.
“No inspector has salary losses, quite the contrary,” he said, stressing that SEF inspectors will be “placed in their places of origin or according to the list of preferences provided to the Ministry of Internal Administration.”
According to information sent by the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MAI), the transition diploma ensures the transfer of all workers to the equivalent categories of the criminal investigation career of the Judicial Police, the “pay increase for all workers directly resulting from the transition,” the “safeguard in certain cases, the use of performance evaluation of workers in the next repositioning remuneration in the PJ” and the “maintenance of commissions of service until the end”.
As part of the process of restructuring the SEF, the MAI says that workers in the investigation and surveillance career are also guaranteed a “provisional functional allocation” of inspectors to the GNR and PSP at air and sea border crossings and other state departments, and that “these workers may, in certain cases, continue their careers in one of these departments.
According to the MAI, this transitory functional assignment of inspectors to the PSP and GNR has “a maximum term of two years, but, in case of need, it will end at any time.
Other rights guaranteed in the transition diploma are “pre-retirement and termination of contract regimes by agreement with the state, safeguarding the availability regime” and “maintenance of the competition for inspector coordinator”.
The diplomas on the transition of SEF workers and the creation of the Portuguese Agency for Minorities, Migrations and Asylum (APMMA), which will replace the SEF in administrative matters regarding foreign citizens and integrate the High Commission for Migrations, have been sent by the Government to the President of the Republic to be promulgated.
Besides SIIFF, the Foreigners and Borders Service also has another inspectors’ union and a union structure that represents non-police workers.
