Minister of Education available to negotiate length of service and career progression for teachers – Sociedade

The Minister of Education was available this Friday to discuss career progression and the length of service of teachers with trade union organizations from next week, admitting that the issues will be on the table.

With a meeting scheduled for Wednesday, João Costa said he was optimistic about the negotiations, stating that, ideally, it would be possible to “find meeting points” with the professors’ representatives.

On the agenda of the new round of negotiations are four themes: the correction of asymmetric effects resulting from the career freeze period and inequalities in the reduction of the teaching component of single-teacher teachers, the reduction of bureaucracy in schools, and the regularization of senior technicians’ contracts and specialized.

On the side of the unions, the main demands are more specific: the recovery of all time in service, as well as the end of assessment quotas and vacancies for access to the 5th and 7th levels of the teaching career.

At a press conference on the new recruitment regime, approved on Thursday by the Council of Ministers, the minister was asked if he would be available to discuss these issues and, without advancing concrete proposals, he also did not close the door on them.

“When we talk about correcting the effects resulting from the freezing period, we are always talking about these matters that have been on the agenda”, he said regarding the length of service.

As for quotas and vacancies, João Costa only said that “the question of progressions in the 5th and 7th levels will be on the table”.

In addition to the unions, the Ministry of Education will also receive, at the beginning of next week, the National Association of Directors of Groupings and Public Schools, which requested an urgent meeting, claiming to be concerned about the “lack of effective support” from the guardianship, especially in the implementation of the minimum services that have been successively decreed by the arbitral tribunal in the face of the teachers’ strikes, which have been going on since December.

However, trade union organizations will maintain the stoppages until the end of the school year. The Union of All Education Professionals (Stop) has already delivered strike notices until March 31 and the platform of nine other structures has called for new strikes by district in April and May, a national strike on June 6 and the assessments of end of the school year.

During the same press conference, João Costa was asked whether the Government would consider resorting to civil requisition to ensure the final assessments. The minister considered it premature to “anticipate scenarios” and reiterated that he hopes for an agreement with the unions within the scope of the new phase of negotiations and to reach “a 3rd period with much more tranquility”.