Lisbon, Jan. 16, 2025 (Lusa) - Portugal's prime minister warned on Thursday that the government has exhausted its ability to negotiate with the organisations representing professional firefighters and will move forward unilaterally without considering the most recent approaches if the impasse persists.

Luís Montenegro issued these warnings after swearing in José Manuel Moura as president of the National Civil Protection Emergency Authority (ANEPC), with Portugal's minister for internal affairs, Margarida Blasco, at his side.

"The government, after nine negotiation meetings with the firefighters, has reached the point where it has exhausted the possibility of going any further concerning the conditions for increasing pay and career prospects," the PM declared.

According to the prime minister, his government has reached the limit of what it can offer with the responsibility and obligation to manage the entire public administration with a sense of equity, relative justice and valuing each person's function."

Luís Montenegro went even further in his warnings to the representative structures of the fire brigade.

"The government values the outcome of the negotiations if they are successful. If they aren't, naturally this effort to get closer won't be so evident," the prime minister added, saying that if a stalemate persists, the government will move forward unilaterally.

Concerning the proposals put forward by the government, Luís Montenegro said that "the last one in the next few years will be a pay rise of more than 37% compared to the current one".

"On average, in two years, firefighters will have a remuneration status that corresponds, in general terms, to an increase in remuneration more or less equivalent to four monthly salaries each year. If these aren't enough reasons, we must bring our positions closer together and reach an agreement on all the other issues arising from the negotiations. In that case, frankly, the government will only have the opportunity to do so unilaterally," warned the prime minister.

Still on the subject of professional firefighters, Luís Montenegro asked each firefighter and the organisations that represent them to reflect.

"Otherwise, the government will have to take a unilateral decision that obviously won't go as far as we're prepared to go with the agreement of the representative structures," he emphasised.

On Tuesday, the National Union of Professional Firefighters (SNBS) accused the government of a "lack of transparency" by dividing the union structures in the negotiations. It said this separation "is creating a lot of contestation" and "unease".

 "They've brought four unions together to negotiate with the government, and the rest negotiate separately (...). This is creating unease among the firefighters because it happened in the past. Now, we're moving in the same direction; we believe that at a democratic level, it doesn't make much sense. We've asked the government for explanations, but no plausible explanation has been given," said SNBS president Ricardo Cunha.

Luís Montenegro put it differently concerning volunteer firefighters, saying that recruitment rates will only be restored if they are given security, predictability and stability.

"That's why I want to say here on this occasion that we will not stop pursuing this path of valuing volunteer firefighters, dignifying their activity and valuing volunteering," he emphasised.

Concerning the challenges facing the new president of ANEPC, the prime minister alluded to one of the main objectives of the government's civil protection programme.

"A process of restructuring the entire civil protection network is necessary, fulfilling, on the one hand, the objective of making the Emergency and Civil Protection Services mission even more effective, in terms of protecting people and property," he pointed out.

According to the prime minister, it is necessary to perfect the "articulation with firefighters, security forces and services, the Armed Forces and all the public entities that contribute to responding promptly to adversities that often jeopardise safety, life and property".

"The new president who has now been sworn in will also be responsible for fulfilling the objectives set out in the government's programme, especially those relating to the territorial restructuring of the protection bodies," he added.

PMF/ADB // ADB.

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