"At this moment, we have already confirmed that the administrative and support staff in most hospitals are only performing minimum services", said the coordinator of the Common Front of Public Administration Unions, Sebastião Santana, adding that "in the tax offices, there are also reports of closures throughout the country".

"In Lisbon, we have already confirmed the closure of offices 7 and 8", he detailed.

Still without data on the functioning of the courts, the union leader also stated that "the service at the headquarters of Social Security, in Lisbon, is closed, and the same is happening in Torres Vedras and Alhandra".

"In the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, many Social Security delegations are closed", he said.

According to Sebastião Santana, the data on the strike adherence "is still coming in slowly", but, so far, "the sign is quite positive".

Early in the morning, the coordinator of the Common Front had already reported to Lusa that the strike of public administration workers, which started today at 07:00, led to the closure of several schools from north to south of the country.

Sebastião Santana said he expected a large turnout for the protest also in health and central services, namely courts, Social Security and tax offices.

"We also know that there is already a large mobilization of workers who are traveling to Lisbon for the day of struggle for today's afternoon rally at the Ministry of Finance, in Lisbon", he said, adding that thousands of people are expected.

The rally is scheduled to start at 2:30 pm, in Praça da Figueira, with the participants then moving to the ministry.

The reasons for striking and protesting have increased, according to Sebastião Santana, with the arrival of the new Government and the content of its program.

"On the day we learned that the tutelage of public administration would be in the Ministry of Finance, we delivered our list of demands and so far we have not had any response", the union leader previously told Lusa, stating that one of the priorities of this list is an interim salary increase of at least 15%, with a minimum of 150 euros per worker, "because workers cannot be left without any increase until 2025".

Sebastião Santana also stated that if, at the end of October, when the State Budget proposal for 2024 (OE2024) was approved, there were reasons for the workers to go on strike, these reasons are now even greater because "the problems have only worsened".

In addition to salary increases, which include raising the minimum wage in the State to 1,000 during 2024, the Common Front also demands changes in careers and in the performance evaluation system, as well as measures to strengthen public services.

For Sebastião Santana, "in public services, what is expected is the opening of doors to the private sector" in sectors such as health and Social Security, that is, an "absolute disfigurement of public administration" that workers cannot accept.

Read Also: Public administration strike closes "many schools" from north to south (Portuguese version)