In a statement sent to the Lusa agency, the Portuguese Nurses Union (SEP) revealed that the petition was delivered today to the ULSBA Board of Directors, in Beja.

A SEP source told Lusa that the document contains "more than 200 signatures" of nurses working in ULSBA's functional units and services.

"Years go by and the problems are not solved, despite the commitment made by the board of directors", criticized the SEP.

On March 12, the union structure recalled, the nurses had announced "their willingness to intensify the forms of struggle", if the local health unit did not adopt "immediate measures to meet the demands" of these professionals.

"The nurses do not accept that this situation continues and demand the approval of the performance evaluation of the two-year periods 2019/2020 and 2021/2022" and "the correction of the relative injustices", can be read in the statement.

According to the petition, consulted by Lusa, the nurses argue that these same performance evaluations "have not yet been approved and, consequently, the due notifications have not been made".

"All deadlines for approval and notification to nurses, provided for in the legislation in force, have been exceeded", they criticized.

This "lack of approval and notification of points prevents nurses [from accessing] the indicative development to which they are entitled when they reach 10 points, or 8 points from 2025" and "hinders the application of Decree-Law No. 75/2023, of August 29, Progress Accelerator".

In the document, they also claim that "the fair and legal counting of points, since 2004, has not been implemented for nurses who took office", from that date, "in the category of specialist nurse and head nurse through a competition".

Therefore, they demand from the board of directors "the rapid approval" of the performance evaluations, as well as "the notifications of points and the payment of retroactives".

"The correction of the points count for specialist and head nurses who took office from 2004" is the other complaint.

Contacted by Lusa, a source from the ULSBA Board of Directors assured that "the matter is being duly handled" by that body.

"In fact, some of the issues raised have already been resolved and the rest are well on their way", said the same source.

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