Court declares illegal minimum services imposed during the strike on final assessments

The Lisbon Court of Appeal, in a ruling approved on November 22nd, declared “illegal the minimum services imposed on strike for final summative assessments of years with final tests or exams (9th, 11th and 12th years ", has just revealed, this Thursday, Fenprof – National Federation of Teachers. In a statement, the union structure led by Mário Nogueira emphasizes that, thus, and “unfortunately belatedly”, it is proven that “those responsible for the Ministry of Education (ME) resorted to illegal and undemocratic methods, it should be added, to try to make the teachers’ struggle unfeasible”.

It should be remembered that, at the beginning of June, the arbitration court, at the request of the guardianship, established minimum services for the final assessments of the 9th, 11th and 12th years and for the final mathematics test of the 9th year. At the time, the platform of nine teachers' union organizations had announced a strike during national exams and final assessments. This led the ministry supervised by João Costa to ask for minimum services in order to “guarantee the interest of students and families”.

For Fenprof, in the statement now released, “in relation to the final evaluations of all years of schooling, the minimum services required went beyond what the law itself establishes, with the arbitration colleges always deciding based on the ME's intentions”. And if, they emphasize, “most of the time this deflation [of teacher strikes] did not happen, with regard to final assessments, teachers were even prevented from going on strike, under threat of disciplinary proceedings being initiated”.