Africa-Press – Cape verde. Career stagnation, delays in overtime pay, lack of adequate weekly rest and lack of material conditions to work. These are some of the problems faced by prison officers at the São Vicente Central Prison, reported today by the Public Administration Workers’ Union (SINTAP).
In a press conference at the prison’s entrance, the national secretary of SINTAP, Luís Fortes, stated that many of these situations have remained unresolved since the statutes were revised in 2001.
“We are talking about promotions for prison officers, new competitions for the recruitment of human resources, taking into account the low number of prison officers. We are also talking about the very late payment of overtime, new equipment/uniforms, improvements in working conditions, the issue of weekly rest, difficulties in taking holidays and some situations where deductions made are not transferred to the INPS”, he points out.
The union leader reveals that most of the new officers, a total of 99, who recently completed their internship, have not yet been placed, which ends up overloading the professionals in service.
“This work overload puts a lot of pressure on the workers, a lot of psychological pressure that is not recognized, so much so that when the workers ask for psychological assistance, they do not receive it. The lack of human resources brings another extremely dangerous issue, which has to do with the safety of both the institution and the prison officers themselves”, he says.
Luís Fortes also denounces that the promotion of Level 3 officers to the position of deputy chief left a gap, which is now being filled by Level 1 and 2 officers, worsening the work overload. The union leader states that SINTAP has been excluded from negotiations with the Ministry of Justice, which is why he is already considering new forms of struggle if the situations are not resolved.
“Workers are willing to resort to other forms of struggle. The first action we wanted to take was this press conference. After this press conference, if there is no openness to dialogue, we will have to stop work,” he said.
SINTAP’s complaints were made today, after a meeting with prison officers at the São Vicente Central Prison.
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