Civil Service Increases? Government “intransigent”: “Not sensitive”

Othe public administration unions expected the government to present, at the meeting on Thursday, a proposal for wage increases to 2027 that would go beyond what was foreseen in the multiannual agreement, in order to cope with the acceleration of the inflation rate.

However, after the meetings that took place between the Government, the Common Front, the Fesap and the Union of Technical Boards of the State and Entities with Public Purposes (STE), the latter announced that the Executive promised to advance with a 5% increase in the cost allowances in the Public Administration from November, but did not prove “sensitive” to wage increases to 2027 above expected.

“Government has not proved sensitive”

As indicated by the president of the STE on leaving the meeting at the Ministry of Finance in Lisbon, the Government agreed to pay an “advance of 5%” in the allowances already “in November”. “We will start the review, but they are already paying at least 5%,” Rosa Sousa reinforced, stressing that this increase will be paid even before the start of the negotiations on the revision of the allowances.

He also reported that the government said it was “compromised with the review of general careers” as well as other careers, arguing that this review “has a budgetary impact”, therefore he considers “it is difficult to make an increase because there is already a commitment to this review”.

“ We also understand and say that it is true, that those who have had their career reviewed also have a salary supplement. But those who don't have their careers reviewed, don't. They only have this increase, which is in the agreement”, he adds.

The STE, which was committed to the UGT, claimed an update of remuneration above 5%, as well as an anticipation of the increase in the food allowance planned for 2028, so that it rises to 6,45 euros already next year.

“Intransigency”

For his part, the coordinator of the Common Front accused the Executive of “intransigence” for not submitting a proposal for higher than expected wage increases and said that the cost allowances in the Public Administration cover “a minority of workers”.

“The government sits at the third meeting of the annual general negotiation without any proposal for a salary change in relation to an impoverishment agreement which it signed with the other two trade union structures,” Sebastião Santana said at the end of the meeting.

The leader of the Common Front also promised “an answer” from the workers in the Public Administration strike scheduled for November 20.

On the 5% increase in advanced cost allowances, the Common Front said that it is “a diversion maneuver” because they are “an absolute minority of workers who in the public administration receive subsistence allowances” and therefore have a reduced budgetary impact. “It is a proposal that is not only insufficient. It is absolutely revealing what the Government’s intention for public administration is”, he said.

In addition to the increases of 2,30%, with a minimum of EUR 60,52 in 2027, the multiannual agreement provides that the remuneration base for public administration will rise from the current EUR 934,99 to EUR 995,51 in 2027.

The agreement in force dictates that the meal allowance, currently EUR 6,15, is increased by 15 cents per year by 2029.