Discontent || As many as 10 PSP officers fulfilling desk duties have been commandeered to act as furniture removers as the elaborate move to Lisbon’s state-of-the-art police building continues.
It is not sure whether the policemen had to walk through the streets carrying the furniture, or whether their duties simply involved filling packing cases. What is certain, however, is that the operation was considered ‘voluntary’ – in other words without pay – but the officers involved are reported to have been ordered to do it.
The news comes as PSP police in Lisbon and Porto complain they are owed at least half a million euros in back-pay for security work carried out for the government on their days off.
“The feeling among agents is that there is a lack of recognition for what they do,” António Ramos, president of the police union SPP-PSP explained.
The work undertaken for the Ministry of Internal Administration (MAI) invariably involves security at football matches.
“The majority of these matches are on Saturday mornings,” said Ramos. “Thus the agents have worked a full week and on Saturdays instead of resting and being with their families, they end up working” – or, in the case of the 10 officers in Lisbon, carrying furniture.
Pressed for a response to the half million euro debt in overtime pay due to officers standing by at football matches, MAI is reported to have told investigating journalists that the “overdue payments will be made very soon”.
