The nurses' union received 600 complaints for "irregularities" in the application of the diploma

In the past two months, "the SE has received around 600 complaints on its platform to denounce irregularities, some referring to incomprehensible cases", the union said in a statement, calling on the Ministry of Health to resume the negotiations.

At issue is the decree-law approved by the Council of Ministers in November 2022, after several meetings with the unions, relating to the counting of points in the performance evaluation and which unfroze the salary progression of nurses in the National Health Service (SNS). ).

According to the ministry's accounts, this decree-law affected around 20 nurses who increased by one or two salary steps, with retroactive payments to January 000, in a budgetary effort of 2022 million euros last year, which will increase to about 72 million in the following years. years.

“There is a very strong feeling of revolt among the nurses, who see the opportunity to recover part of their working time disappear, with repercussions on the payroll, because of questionable or even erroneous applications of the decree- law," he said. .the president of SE, mentioned in the press release.

Faced with the "irregularities" communicated by the nurses to the union, Pedro Costa called on the Ministry of Health to "enforce the law so that it is applied uniformly, in all units of the SNS".

"We have nurses who start their duties on the same day, but in different establishments, and one was counted for the whole year and the other was not counted for that year, because the day in question is in the second half of the year", illustrated the union leader.

According to the SE, there have also been cases of nurses who, "without any apparent justification, did not see the points recorded between 2008 and 2013", because they had a contract with a regional health administration and then are passed, and without any day of interruption of contract, for a local health unit.

“It is urgent that the Ministry of Health intervene to define, once and for all, a standardization of the criteria which govern the application of the decree-law”, pleaded the union, noting that it was agreed to resume negotiations “ in a short period of time”.

However, Pedro Costa warned that “it will be very difficult to advance to the negotiating table without implementing the correct application of point counting” for the purpose of performance evaluation.

According to the government, the decree-law provides for an increase of approximately 200 euros for nurses with the points necessary to move up a step and 400 euros for those who move up two steps, applying to nurses holding a contract of work in public functions and those who have an individual employment contract.

PC // JMR