The union of social reintegration technicians fears that later this month the courts could be overwhelmed with requests to annul decisions taken on the basis of reports by technicians who legally could not have drawn them up.
At issue is a decision by the Central Administrative Court (TCA) of the South, which upheld a lower court ruling in favor of the Sindicato dos Técnicos da Direção-Geral de Reinserção e Serviços Prisionais (SinDGRSP) (Union of Technicians of the Directorate-General for Reintegration and Prison Services), which called for the annulment of a tender to hire senior technicians due to illegalities in the opening notice
The notice provided that specific remuneration supplements for the careers of senior social reintegration technician and senior reeducation technician could be paid to senior technicians in the general career, which the court confirmed was illegal.
However, SinDGRSP president Miguel Gonçalves told Lusa, the decision also confirms that the functions performed by technicians in these two careers can only be carried out by professionals who are integrated into them, under penalty of “emptying the functional content of the careers of senior social reintegration technician and senior re-education technician”, as stated in the ruling of the Southern Court of Appeal.
This means, said the union’s president, that as of January 15, when the decision of the Southern Court of Appeal becomes final and unappealable, requests to annul judicial decisions made on the basis of reports drawn up by senior technicians from the general careers, which could only have been made by technicians from the two specific careers of the Directorate-General for Reintegration and Prison Services (DGRSP), in compliance with the law that determines the functions assigned to each of the two careers, can begin to enter the courts.
Among the tasks is the preparation of reports to support the courts, with opinions that support decision-making in cases such as guardianship of minors, for example.
Miguel Gonçalves said that it was not possible to estimate the number of cases and decisions affected, but said that he had already asked Fernanda de Almeida Pinheiro, the lawyers’ president, for an audience “to alert her to this situation”.
