The new law, which will be in force from July 31st to August 4th, will allow the government to impose a ban on the use of non-teaching staff for World Youth Day activities.
The strike notice presented by the Union of Workers in Public and Social Services of the South and Autonomous Regions, which is dated today, has been decreed for between 00:00 and 24 hours in the period between July 31 and August 4, with the World Youth Day (WYD) taking place in Lisbon from August 1 to 6 this year.
According to the notice, published in a newspaper, the goal is to “denounce and prevent the forced recourse of non-teaching workers from public schools for functions related to the World Youth Day”, the “prevention of taking vacations in the last week of July and the first week of August that harm workers and undermine the organization of the next school year” and the “illegal” fact that vacation maps are not posted on the deadline provided by law (April 15).
The strike by the Union of Public and Social Service Workers of the South and Autonomous Regions also aims to challenge the schedule changes “that are being imposed on workers as well as the imposition of work on weekly rest days or complementary rest days.
As part of the strike, the workers want to “prevent abusive recourse” to overtime work, to demand “respect for non-teaching workers with regard to their functional content, who should be on duty for the educational community.
The workers will also strike for overtime work outside normal working hours, on complementary rest days, on mandatory rest days, and on municipal holidays between July 22 and August 8.
The strike will also cover the complementary and mandatory rest days on the weekends of July 22 and 23, July 29 and 30, and August 5 and 6.
The strike covers non-teaching workers in public schools, operational assistants and other workers in general careers at schools under the management of municipalities in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area (AML).
The notice covers schools under the management of the City Councils of Alcochete, Almada, Amadora, Barreiro, Cascais, Lisbon, Loures, Mafra, Moita, Odivelas, Oeiras, Palmela, Seixal, Sesimbra, Setúbal, Sintra and Vila Franca de Xira) and all the parish councils in AML.