The strike was called for between 00:00 on November 3rd and 24:00 on December 31st, covering the public sector across the country, Sindepor announced in a statement.

“The SNS’s response capacity is getting worse day by day, harming all Portuguese people, whether they are SNS [National Health Service] professionals or not. We have no doubt that, with more satisfied workers, the quality of the SNS response increases and nurses are the largest professional class in this service”, says the president of Sindepor, Carlos Ramalho, in the statement.

The union leader states that “in this context and given the total inability of the Ministry of Health to “even listen” to the nurses' problems, they were forced to go on strike.

“We regularly contact nurses in hospitals and primary care. They are tired, angry and unmotivated and it is an increasingly aging class, which has led to a clear increase in absenteeism. In this context, our strike allows them, at least, not to be forced to work overtime, burdened with the hours they worked during the rest of the year”, he explains.