The president of the PSD this Sunday proposed the “restoration of the possible time” of teachers’ service and called on the government and unions to find “a balance”, defending that an agreement “is in the interest of all is”.
“Valuing teachers’ careers with rules for progression, recovery of time possible in the face of what the country has had to go through as a result of past irresponsibility is also a PSD design,” said Luís Montenegro, who was speaking at the conclusion of the XV National Congress of Social Democratic Workers, in Lisbon.
Pressed by journalists to clarify what he meant by “possible time”, the PSD leader did not respond, referring to the debate on education that the party has scheduled for next week in the Assembly of the Republic.
In his speech, Luís Montenegro considered that the government “is solely responsible for conducting” the negotiations with the teachers, and that “this negotiation, which is in everyone’s interest, must bear fruit as soon as possible, because the losses belong to the teachers, but the losses also belong to the students and their families”.
“Let’s look at the condition of a teacher, let’s look at his lack of motivation, at the fact that nowadays he wastes so much time on bureaucratic and administrative tasks and less on pedagogical tasks, let’s look at that difficulty that is often is so far away from home, but let’s also look at that student who has no lessons and who leaves learning behind, and let’s look at that family whose parents are either missing work or have their hands tied because their children do not have school,” he summed up.
The PSD chairman thought it necessary to “look at everyone” and “make a balance here”.
“From here I launch this appeal to everyone: to trade unions, teachers, parents and students, but above all to the government,” Montenegro said, emphasizing “the government cannot ignore what is happening”.
“The Minister of Education and especially the Prime Minister of Portugal cannot pretend that the school in Portugal is going through this difficulty and that it has consequences that we will pay in the future. We must find a solution, only then can we have the equality of opportunity that characterizes us,” emphasized the Social Democrat.
This position of the leader of the PSD was announced the day after a national demonstration of teachers that took place in Lisbon, which according to the organization gathered more than 150,000 people.
Teachers are demanding the reinstatement of six years, six months and 23 days of service not accounted for by the government in the context of career thawing.
At the start of the school year, the guardianship decided to start a negotiation process to review the teacher hiring and placement model, but some of the proposals angered teachers, as was the case with the possibility for principals to choose part of their team.
Negotiations between unions and the ministry have taken place in an environment of strong opposition, with teachers staging strikes and demonstrations.
Outside the negotiating agenda, there are demands that the professors say they will not give up, such as the restoration of seniority or the career development of the professors.
Foreigners must bring their families
Montenegro also defended this Sunday that Portugal should “attract qualified workers as soon as possible” and believed that foreign citizens should bring their families.
The PSD leader stated that for the country to have “a competitive economy, effective public administration and sustainability in key public systems”, it must “attract a qualified workforce and attract people who come as soon as possible”.
“I already believed that one of the most effective ways for us to combat this dehydration was to attract young students to our higher education institutions. should add”, he defended.
“The sooner a foreign citizen, who can be a child, arrives in Portugal and can integrate into our structures, the easier it will be for us to count on these people in the future to cover what is undeniable, namely a population gap that we will have it in Portugal for decades to come,” he insisted.
Luís Montenegro reiterated that “Portugal needs a program to attract, welcome and integrate immigrants” to counter population loss in the coming years. years ago”.
“It is necessary, without lukewarmness, without complexes, with the openness of a people of solidarity that we have always been, of a universalist vision that we have always had in the emergence of our identity as a nation, it is necessary to look to those who can come to help us from abroad, to the immigrants we must welcome, whom we must even attract and integrate,” said the Social Democratic leader.
Luís Montenegro also believed that “it is necessary to implement policies that remove obstacles to the desired birth rate, it is necessary to bet on policies that reconcile working life with family life, it is necessary to value wages”, in addition “increasingly appreciating the role of women” and “avoiding discrimination that is now anachronistic given the evolution of society”.
“Only in this way will we have a working world that can reflect the aspirations and expectations of those who borrow their working capacity to get that capacity back,” defended the PSD chairman.
In Guarda on Thursday, Montenegro said it should receive immigrants “in a regulated manner” and “scour the world” for communities that could better deal with the Portuguese.
Immorality of active workers who earn less than the unemployed
The PSD chairman still thought it immoral that active workers earn less than the unemployed and repeated the criticism of the changes introduced by the Decent Work Agenda.
Luís Montenegro defended that “a society in which people who work reach the end of the month and earn less than people who don’t work is immoral”.
“While we don’t want to let anyone down, the worst thing we can do is to discourage those who produce, those who work, those who have a chance, who give their best and who reach the end of the month and have less .” income than those others who don’t make the effort,” defended the Social Democratic leader.
For Montenegro “a fair and inclusive society leaves no one behind, there must be help for those who have more difficulties, there must be help that can motivate them above all to overcome difficulties, to get out of a vulnerable situation”
Immediately before that, Luís Montenegro gave the example of the teachers, mentioning that their placement outside the home “means that many of these professionals, below transport, accommodation and food costs, reach the end of the month earning zero or even having a negative balance”.
In his speech, the social democratic leader again criticized the “Agenda for Decent Work”, which was approved in parliament on Friday, with the PS voting in favour, the PSD, Chega, PAN and Livre abstaining and against the BE, PCP and IL .
Montenegro felt that this is “a process worthy of the courtesy or lightness of the Government of Portugal and the PS”.
“I am genuinely concerned that some of its pillars, after signing an income agreement based on social dialogue, are now being distorted or falsified in this legislation, often to the detriment of workers,” he criticized.
The chairman of the PSD believed that “this Decent Work Agenda is worth studying in terms of the perverse effects it will unfortunately have on workers’ rights”.
In his speech, Luís Montenegro also believed that “now is the time to identify who has the guts to look to the future, to project the future, to prepare those who will come next”.
This is not the time for skills, this is not the time for tricks, this is not the time for political schemes, this is not the time for survivors, for those who only want to go to tomorrow, this is the time for reformers. the ones who project, the ones who are really supportive,” he stressed.
Source: DN
