The strike starts today, Tuesday, and will go on indefinitely as professionals make a stand against overtime work and improving career opportunities.
Pre-hospital emergency technicians are demanding measures to make their careers more attractive, as a way of combating the 30% dropout rate from the profession.
“The main problem of the career is related to the high rate of abandonment and absence of candidates”, the president of the Union of Pre-Hospital Emergency Technicians (STEPH) told the Lusa news agency.
According to Rui Lázaro, the number of pre-hospital emergency technicians at the National Institute of Medical Emergency (INEM) “has been significantly reduced over the last few years”, despite the hirings made, which “proves a high rate of abandonment of more than 30%”.
"The way to combat this is to make the career more attractive, immediately reviewing the remuneration index, which is close to the national minimum wage", said the union leader, predicting a "large adhesion" to the strike that started at 00:00 this morning.
According to the notice, the strike covers all pre-hospital emergency technicians at INEM and includes all scheduled events that the institute intends to ensure, “beyond what is its normal and legally required activity”.
Since the strike refers to overtime work, the union structure did not present any proposal for minimum services because “they are not due”, since “all urgent and emergent work in normal hours will continue to be guaranteed in all shifts”.
The union also assured that “multi-victim events and natural or other catastrophes that may occur” are not covered by this stoppage, adding that, for these situations, “workers will always be available to meet the needs that arise and will provide the necessary additional work and assistance that may prove necessary."
Source Lusa
