The Bloco de Esquerda questioned the European Commission about imposing minimum services in teachers’ strikes and wanted to know what “protection mechanisms” the EU has to make governments “respect the right to strike”.
In the question from Bloco de Esquerda (BE), MEPs Marisa Matias and José Gusmão state that “the minimum service for indefinite strikes by a single union”, referring to the Union of All Education Professionals (Stop), ended “reaching all calls to action”.
The two BE members point out that the Ministry of Education “provides guidance” so that the minimum service is fulfilled “for all institutions, regardless of the number of pre-notifications”.
“This means open schools when there is a strike, even one-day national strikes with a set time, such as those issued for March 2 and 3 by Fenprof,” they warn.
In this sense, BE asked the European Commission whether, taking into account the Declaration of Human Rights, “a government of the European Union (EU) can establish minimum services, especially with this dimension in the exercise of the right to strike”.
“Is the Commission aware of these facts? If so, what labor rights protection mechanisms does the EU have in place to ensure that different governments respect the right to strike?”, ask Marisa Matias and José Gusmão.
On Tuesday, CDS-PP MEP Nuno Melo had also questioned the European Commission about what he considered the existence of “discrimination and violation of the principle of equality” between the counting of teachers’ seniority in the autonomous regions and in mainland Portugal . .
Nuno Melo claimed that in the autonomous regions, teachers’ seniority is “fully counted”, while in mainland Portugal, six years, six months and 23 days remain to be counted.
On Monday, the Court of Arbitration declared minimum services for teachers’ strikes organized by the platform of nine union organizations that took place this Thursday and Friday.
There were already minimum services for those days, but the previous decision, referring to the period between February 27 and March 10, only concerned the indefinite strike by the Union of All Education Professionals (Stop).
According to the verdict published this Monday, the arbitration panel has, by majority decision, instituted the same set of minimum services for the strike that the union platform has called for, including the National Federations of Teachers (Fenprof) and Education (FNE).
Schools therefore had to provide three hours of lessons in kindergarten and the 1st cycle, as well as three daily hours per class in the 2nd and 3rd cycle and secondary education, in order to guarantee the different disciplines every week. .
Source: DN
