PORTUGUESE MEMBER DELEGATIONS
SITUATION IN PORTUGAL
Barcelona, 13-14 May 2011
The financial crisis has been installed officiellent in Portugal.
In an attempt to prevent the entry of the IMF, in the second half of 2010 the government made several cuts in spending, particularly in health.
He cut in comparticipation drugs, doctors have seen their wages reduced by 10%, and the imposition of reductions in overtime.
However, unions were able to complete negotiations with the government on performance evaluation and regulation of competition.
To complete negotiations of the collective agreement, the unions continue to negotiate salaries, but with this financial crisis and the IMF
in Portugal, there is no short-term prospects for its realization.
On the other hand, the result of changes in the rules of retirement and also the bad environment in services, several doctors have applied
for retirement, about a thousand in early 2010.
The output of doctors has caused difficulties for health services, particularly health care primaries, with a loss of 540 Family Physicians
(universe in about 6000).
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National Federation of Doctors (FNAM)
FEMS Assembly
Lyon, 14-15 May 2010
Such as information contained in the last meeting - October 2009 - Unions reached an agreement with the Government on the review of Medical Careers and the Collective Bargaining Agreement (TCA), but given the need to complete these negotiations before the election ( and thus to avoid the risk of having to restart the entire negotiation process with a new government), four subjects remained awake - payrolls, performance evaluation, procurement regulations and the minimum service on strike.
This was the way that unions have found, knowing that those are matters over which, eventually, the consensus would be more difficult to obtain.
With this in mind, negotiations resumed on January 19 last, was agreed to set up negotiating tables for each of those subjects. Since then, several meetings have already been made effective on being, however, is still far from reaching a comprehensive agreement - the Government is dragging the process by putting forward proposals totally unacceptable to the Unions.
However, shielding themselves in need of balance of public finances, the Government announced changes to the rules of retirement, severely penalizing workers, which led to nearly 600 physicians were asked immediately to his retirement before the entry into force of these amendments .
Much of these doctors are GPs, which seriously compromises the services of primary health care and led the government to announce that it is studying the possibility that it would hire retired physicians.
FNAM – Portugal
Following our two last informations - 2009 May and October 2010 - the negotiations of important questions of the Collective Agreements of Work continue in impasse.
From an year ago there is no consensus, on payrolls and on performance evaluation. The negotiations had been concluded only on minimum services in strike and almost agreed the regulations of competitions.
On the other hand, the impasse in the reform of the primary health care services is remained, with the reorganization of the health centres, for making.
At last, the Government divulged one project to reform the organization of the hospitals that, in the opinion of the unions, is merely the enunciations of half a dozen of intentions, without any indication of how to implement it. The period of public discussion ended on the 15th September, but is still unknown the final text.