The strike pre-notices communicated to the Labor Ministry increased by almost 150% in the first quarter in relation to the same period in the previous year, to 489, and in the public administration they increased 113%, totaling 264, according to official data.
According to monthly data from the Directorate-General for Employment and Labor Relations (DGERT), between January and March, 489 strike notices were delivered to the Ministry of Labor in the private and state-owned business sector, compared to 197 in the same period in 2022.
The statistics from the Directorate General of Administration and Public Employment (DGAEP) show that in the first quarter of the year, 264 prior strike notices were given in the civil service, compared to 124 in the first three months of the previous year.
In percentage terms, the year-on-year increase in the first quarter was 148.1% in the case of the notice periods reported to the Ministry of Labor and 112.9% in the public administration.
Raising wages to meet the rising cost of living due to inflation has been one of the main drivers of the protests.
Taking into account the notice periods communicated to DGERT, the data show that the majority (341) occurred in the private sector and 148 in the state-owned enterprise sector, and 74 minimum service procedures were registered.
Considering only the month of March, DGERT received 206 strike notices in the private (34%) and government business sector (66%), with the most affected sectors being “public administration and defense; mandatory social security” with 29% of the total and “administrative and support service activities” with 27%, followed by “transportation and storage” (9%) and “human health and social support activities” (8%).
As for the 264 prior strike notices in the public administration, the vast majority (201) were in Education, followed by Health (28) and Foreign Affairs (13), although the latter have been called off.
Seven strike notices were given in Justice, five in Local Government, three in Internal Administration, one in Finance, and one in Agriculture and Food.
In March there was also a national strike of Public Administration workers, called by the trade union federation of the CGTP.
The beginning of the year was marked by several strikes at CP – Comboios de Portugal, with disruptions to the circulation of trains throughout the country.
Also in education, several strikes are underway that, in the first months of the year, led to the closure of schools, and in some cases, minimum services were decreed.
