The president of the Union of Judicial Employees (SFJ), António Marçal, admitted on Friday that he has "high expectations" regarding the negotiations with the Government for better salaries and career review. "Our expectation is high," said the official, in statements to journalists, in Lisbon, before meeting with the Minister of Justice, Rita Júdice. "We presented a list of charges whose resolution is phased, a set of measures that can be taken immediately by the Government," said António Marçal, giving as an example the payment of the procedural recovery supplement integrated into the salary. These measures, he notes, allow "some calm" to negotiate "everything that is structural within the scope of the Justice reform": "I believe that the emergency will lead the Minister to have something concrete to say today," he added. "The question of money cannot be an excuse," he said. It should be recalled that prison guards, judicial employees and the Ministry of Justice are back at the negotiating table today with representatives of the sector's careers. The Minister of Justice receives the Union of Justice Officers, the Union of Judicial Employees and will have a joint meeting with the three unions representing the prison guards: Union of Chiefs of the Prison Guard Corps, National Union of the Prison Guard Corps and Independent Union of the Prison Guard Corps. Today's meetings will serve, according to a statement from the Ministry of Justice, to establish a negotiation protocol and presentation of the assumptions of the negotiation between the parties. The Union of Judicial Employees, which for more than a year has been holding a succession of strikes to demand a career review and the payment of the procedural recovery supplement integrated into the salary, paid in 14 months, among other demands, has already scheduled a new strike, starting on 8 May, on Wednesdays and Fridays in the morning. In the meeting with the Minister, the SFJ is preparing to demand, in the short term, the payment of the aforementioned salary supplement, which "requires a small budgetary effort", since it is currently paid in 11 months, and the payment of overtime, stressing that the functions require availability to the service "well beyond normal hours", between 9 am and 5 pm. Also in the short term, the union intends to see a residence supplement assigned, so that "it is possible to attract and retain qualified professionals" and "so that there are candidates for the positions and that they feel stimulated to remain in the career". In the medium term, the union wants to see a supplement established for the duty of permanent availability "similar to other professions within the civil service" and the revision of the Statute of Judicial Employees, a process that the previous socialist executive left unfinished, having presented a proposal for revision that was criticized by the unions of justice officers, but also by magistrates and the Portuguese Bar Association. According to the president of the union, António Marçal, the SFJ intends to approve its proposal for revision of professional status at the congress that it organizes between 10 and 12 May, in Anadia, Aveiro, "where the forms of struggle that are necessary will be decided". For 7 May, the union has also scheduled a plenary meeting of leaders and union delegates in front of the Ministry. The Government said it hopes that the negotiation "will be successful and will result in the end of the long cycle of strikes that has lasted for more than 15 years". Read Also: Union of Judicial Employees distances itself from manifesto (Portuguese version)