The walkout will affect morning and afternoon shifts.

Nurses at the Centro Hospitalar Universitário do Algarve (CHUA) maintain their strike scheduled for today after the hospital board of directors postponed the meeting scheduled for today, announced the Union of Portuguese Nurses (SEP).

In a statement, the SEP indicated that the CHUA board of directors’ unavailability to meet with the nurses was communicated on Tuesday afternoon, “a few hours before the most anticipated meeting in recent times”, when “answers are required for [health professionals] problems”.

For the union structure, this is “another setback in the relationship of trust between management, nurses and the SEP”.

“In this context, the nurses declare zero tolerance and, even though the administration has indicated the postponed meeting would take place on February 14, the strike remains for Wednesday”, reads the note.

The strike will affect morning and afternoon shifts, between 08:00 and 24:00, in hospitals in Faro, Portimão and Lagos and Basic Emergency Services in Lagos, Albufeira, Loulé and Vila Real de Santo António.

Nurses demand “justice” in interpreting the decree-law accounting years of service for career progression and the consequent retroactive payments.

In the case of CHUA, points are not being counted for nurses who started work in the second half of each year, nurses who had precarious contracts or specialist nurses with an individual work contracts.

The SEP adds that “it will listen to nurses on the possibility of implementing new forms of combat later this month, should the February 14 meeting (or lack thereof) translate into yet another postponement/dismissal of responsibility by the administration” of the Hospital Center of the Algarve.