In a statement, the union – which represents professional technicians in educational centers and electronic surveillance services, senior technicians in social reintegration teams, and senior re-education technicians working in prisons – denounced the lack of revision of their professional careers since 2008, the year in which the law providing for the transition of these careers to the new general careers of senior technicians came into force.
“The omission of legislation to revise the careers of these workers culminates in the violation of the right to equal pay,” said SinDGRSP, ensuring that its professionals are “victims of negative discrimination” and that the lack of career revision is harming them, “violating a fundamental right of the European Union.”
The career transition, according to the decree approved in February 2008, should have been completed within 180 days.
“Considering that if the aforementioned careers were revised according to what was determined in 2009, and given that more than 15 years have passed, there is a loss to each employee of at least 54,715.50 euros,” reads the complaint form submitted to the European Commission.
The complaint, signed by lawyer Ana Catarina Loureiro and accompanied by an opinion from constitutionalist Jorge Bacelar Gouveia, indicated that steps have already been taken in the Portuguese justice system to try to resolve this situation and that there are no forecasts for decisions on the various pending legal actions in the courts.
According to information released in July by the union, the revision of the careers of technicians from the Directorate-General for Reintegration and Prison Services (DGRSP) should begin to be negotiated with the Government in September.
