The Bloco de Esquerda questioned the European Commission about the imposition of minimum services in teachers’ strikes, wanting to know what “protection mechanisms” the EU has to make governments “respect the right to strike”.
In the question addressed by the Bloco de Esquerda (BE), MEPs Marisa Matias and José Gusmão refer that “the minimum services provided for strikes of indefinite duration by a single union”, in reference to the Union of All Education Professionals (Stop) , ended up “extending to all calls”.
The two BE MEPs point out that the Ministry of Education is “giving guidelines” so that the minimum services are fulfilled “for all establishments, regardless of the number of prior notices”.
“This means open schools whenever there is a strike, even one-day national strikes with a defined time, such as those decreed for March 2 and 3 by Fenprof”, they warn.
In this sense, BE questioned the European Commission whether, taking into account the Declaration of Human Rights, “can a government of the European Union (EU) enact minimum services, especially with this dimension in the exercise of the right to strike”.
“Is the Commission aware of these facts? If so, what mechanisms for the protection of labor rights does the EU have to make the different governments respect the right to strike?”, question Marisa Matias and José Gusmão.
On Tuesday, CDS-PP MEP Nuno Melo had also questioned the European Commission about what he considered to be the existence of “discrimination and violation of the principle of equality” between counting the length of service of teachers in the autonomous regions and in mainland Portugal.
Nuno Melo claimed that, in the autonomous regions, the length of service of teachers “is being counted in full”, while in mainland Portugal six years, six months and 23 days are yet to be counted.
On Monday, the Arbitral College decreed minimum services for the teachers’ strikes called by the platform of nine union organizations and which took place this Thursday and Friday.
Minimum services had already been decreed for those days, but the previous decision, referring to the period between February 27 and March 10, concerned only the indefinite strike by the Union of All Education Professionals (Stop).
According to the judgment published this Monday, the arbitral panel established, by majority decision, the same set of minimum services for the strike called by the union platform, which includes the national federations of Teachers (Fenprof) and Education (FNE ).
Schools thus had to ensure three hours of classes in pre-school and 1st cycle classes, as well as three daily teaching periods per class in 2nd and 3rd cycles and secondary education, in order to guarantee, on a weekly basis, coverage of the different disciplines.