“It makes no sense that, when the current SEF inspectors join the PJ’s special criminal investigation wing, there will be inspectors with fewer years of experience earning more than transferred staff who have more years of service,” said the president of the SEF Research and Inspection Career Union.

This week the Government published the draft decree-law that regulates the transfer of workers from SEF to the PJ, to the Institute of Registries and Notary Services (IRN) and to the future Portuguese Agency for Migration and Asylum ( APMA) within the scope of the restructuring of the SEF.

The new law begins the formal phase of the union negotiation process, with the process of eliminating SEF to be concluded with final approval at a meeting of the Council of Ministers.

The inspectors' union considers that the draft decree-law that will regulate the transfer of inspectors from the SEF to the PJ does not guarantee the principle "equal work, equal pay", being a "red line" that has to be respected and from which the union “will make a point of honour in the negotiations with the Government” that will take place from now on.

Acácio Pereira said that “SEF inspectors who are transferred to the PJ will be placed in the corresponding levels in the PJ’s special criminal investigation career and, in these levels, the years of service they have already completed as SEF inspectors will have to be fully respected” .

“It makes no sense that, within the same levels in the Judiciary Police, there are some inspectors with fewer years of career earning more than others who have more years of service, just because the latter have just arrived from the SEF”, explained the leader. union.

SEF's investigation and inspection career currently includes around 900 inspectors and close to a hundred eligible for retirement.

Workers in the general and information technology careers should be distributed between the IRN and the APMA.

The restructuring of the SEF will allow inspectors to stay up to two years at air and maritime border posts, which will become the responsibility of the PSP and GNR.

The Ministry of Internal Administration (MAI) explained, in a note, that SEF inspectors, despite being transferred to the PJ, will continue to carry out functions at air and maritime border posts under the transition.

According to the MAI, these inspectors will continue to train GNR and PSP elements in border control and will be entitled to the original remuneration and the counting of the time of service provided in this allocation regime.

With the restructuring of the SEF, police duties will pass to the PSP, GNR and PJ, while the current attributions in administrative matters regarding foreign citizens will be exercised by the APMA and the Institute of Registration and Notary.

The restructuring of the SEF was decided by the previous Government and approved by the Assembly of the Republic in November 2021, having already been postponed twice.