Lisbon, Sept. 12, 2024 (Lusa) - Portugal's National Association of Professional Firefighters (ANBP) and National Union of Professional Firefighters (SNBP) have called their members out on a national demonstration in Lisbon on 10 October, the association announced on Thursday.
The demonstration, which is scheduled for the day that the right-of-centre coalition government submits its 2025 budget bill to parliament, is to include a march by professional firefighters from the Ministry of Internal Administration - which oversees the profession - and the parliament building.
In a statement, the ANBP and SNBP said that they were demanding that the government quickly open negotiations on revising the professional fire fighters formal status, updating the risk allowance, and indexing the salary scale for sapper firefighters to the national minimum wage.
They also demand that the current monthly pay of sapper firefighters be boosed by more than €52, that a risk supplement be awarded and that the existing "Permanent Availability Supplement" be updated, among other things.
"If the government does not open the negotiation process and does not accede to these demands already submitted to the MAI, the ANBP and SNBP will hold a National Strike with all Portuguese firefighters by the end of the year, in addition to the national demonstration," the statement said.
The organisations believe that they have "the legitimacy to engage in other, more extreme forms of struggle" because professional firefighters have been "without changes or career development" for 22 years, adding that they believe the government will act to guarantee that these professionals "have all the conditions to ensure" the "safety and well-being of the population."
A week ago, another organisation, the National Union of Sapper Firefighters (SNBS), announced a national demonstration in Lisbon on 2 October to call attention to the "serious problems" it said its members are facing and what it said was the government's "indifferent and unacceptable response" to these.
Speaking to Lusa news agency at the time, SNBS president Ricardo Cunha said that the aim of the demonstration was "to show that the sapper firefighters are not happy with the government, which has broken its word" - recalling that the secretaries of state for civil defence and for local administration had promised to meet with union representatives by June, but this had not happened.
At issue is the pay rise, which had already been promised by the previous, Socialist government.
Cunha said that the sapper firefighters are demanding an increase of around €100 in their monthly salaries to compensate for rising prices, in line with the one given to police officers in 2023 by the previous government.
According to the SNBS, there are around 3,000 professional firefighters in the country, spread across 25 municipalities.
PAL/ARO // ARO.
Lusa
