The Minister of Education, Science, and Innovation, Fernando Alexandre, spoke to journalists on Friday at the end of the first round of negotiations with the teachers' union structures. According to the minister, at the first meeting, the Executive led by Luís Montenegro took the opportunity to present its proposal for the recovery of service time, "which was frozen for six years, six months, and 23 days, and what the proposal presents is the commitment of the fulfillment of the promise that is present in the Government's program to return to all teachers by the end of the legislature, starting on September 1, 2024, the totality of that time". Fernando Alexandre recalls that this proposal "has to be gradual because it represents a very significant budgetary effort", despite not revealing the cost of the measure. "We have the calculations done, I will not advance any value because we have an initial proposal that is evaluated in the budget. Any changes that this proposal undergoes will have very significant budgetary implications and, therefore, for each scenario, if we give 15% or 20% in one year, the accounts change considerably", said the minister, adding that this is to be avoided "so as not to make noise". Regarding the divergences between the Executive and the unions, the minister recalled that the Government's proposal is to start with the recovery of time "every year on September 1", considering that this measure "fulfills the objectives that the unions themselves had set". "Start the recovery of service time in 2024 on the one hand, on the other hand guarantee the total recovery of service time until the end of the legislature", he said, admitting that this "is the Government's initial proposal, it does not mean that there cannot be some changes here". "We are open to improving our response, so that it better meets the demands of teachers and the education system," he stressed. Even before concluding his speech, Fernando Alexandre stressed that the teachers' career is "complex" and that all changes must be well thought out and "rigorous" for a question of "justice" and "balanced from a budgetary point of view". Adding, however, that the Government is "open to making some adjustments to the proposal it has now made". Unions demand faster recovery During the morning, the unions learned about the executive's proposal to gradually return the six years, six months, and 23 days of frozen time at an annual average of 20%, starting in September of this year. All the unions asked for a faster recovery, that the teachers who are on the verge of retirement are not forgotten, and that the executive drops the idea of revoking the diploma (decree-law 74) that implemented mechanisms to accelerate career progression. It should be recalled that Fenprof had already revealed, this Friday, that the recovery of teachers' service time begins in September and that its completion date is the end of the legislature, that is, in 2028. Despite this, according to Mário Nogueira, the Executive is using "days that the teachers have already recovered through other documents, such as the so-called 'accelerator'" and losing rights that they had already acquired. Read Also: Government "scraping the bottom of the barrel". Recovery "begins in September" (Portuguese version)