The legislative initiative presented by the Livre group, which provides for the elimination of intermediate paid positions and equal pay between the nursing career and the higher technical career in the public administration, was approved with the votes in favor of the PS, Chega, BE, PCP, Livre and PAN, abstention of the Iniciativa Liberal and against only the PSD and CDS-PP groups.

In today's votes, four other bills and three draft resolutions were rejected - the latter without the force of law - on the professional and remuneration enhancement of nurses authored by BE, PAN, PCP, Chega and Livre.

In the debate that took place on Tuesday, several opposition parties defended the salary enhancement of nurses and career progression, with the PSD group referring this issue to the negotiations between the Government and the unions that begin on Friday.

These positions were expressed in the debate on the petition presented by the Portuguese Trade Union Association of Nurses, with more than 11,000 signatures, which demanded the unfreezing of the career and performance evaluation for nurses in mainland Portugal in the same way as applied to their colleagues in Madeira.

In her speech, PSD deputy Ana Oliveira stressed that it is "essential to correct the accentuated inequalities" during the socialist government and recalled that, this week, the Ministry of Health "will start the dialogue" with the unions in the health area.

"The organizations that represent the class of nurses will have the opportunity to present their proposals, which may include the petition discussed here, in a dialogue focused on solutions and centered on the care and protection of those who work and those who receive care", added the social-democratic parliamentarian.

Despite recognizing that there were valid grounds in many of the legislative proposals that were presented, Ana Oliveira considered that it did not seem, however, "opportune for their development", alleging the imminence of a negotiation process between the Government and the nurses.

For the PS group, Eurídice Pereira highlighted the measures implemented by the previous Government, such as the counting of points, which allowed "18,000 nurses to see their situation resolved at once" and with an annual financial impact of around 80 million euros.

The socialist parliamentarian also considered that there are other matters that imply legislative changes and for which the "PS is available to work", recalling that the secretary-general Pedro Nuno Santos "expressed his availability to the prime minister to build an agreement" for solutions on matters on which there is political consensus.

In today's votes, three bills from BE, PAN and Livre for the State's co-payment of nutritional products intended for outpatients were also rejected, with the votes against from the PSD, PS and CDS-PP.

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