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The notice should have been sent to the State Department of Health Management – and it went to the State Department of Health.
About a year and a half after the strike at INEM – National Institute of Medical Emergency, the contradictions accumulate at Government level.
Cristina Vaz Tomé was Secretary of State for Health Management at the time (she has since left the Government) and said that did not receive any formal communication regarding advance notice of the strike; even with an email about the matter that reached your office, which would be a warning about the advance notice.
In another hearing, also within the scope of the parliamentary commission of inquiry, the former chief of staff, Gustavo Namorado, commented that all strike notices that reached the office were dealt with “immediately”.
Anabela Barata, who was Cristina Vaz Tomé’s chief of staff, told deputies that she had not received any advance notice of a strike. Received “a notice that advance notice would be sent” – it was an “intention”, it was not a document that would trigger any formal procedure, he explained.
Anabela Barata was chief of staff at State Secretariat for Health Managementthe Government department that must receive these documents.
But The person who received advance notice of the strike was the State Department of Health.
The Union of Pre-Hospital Emergency Technicians (STEPH) has always assured that it sent advance notice of strike to the Government by email. But went to the wrong Secretary of Statenow indicates the .
The notice that there would be a strike notice was sent to the correct email; the strike notice was sent to the wrong email.
On October 10, 2024, STEPH’s strike notice (in fact) was received by an administrative technician from the support service for government offices; he was forwarded, practically immediately, for the chief of staff of the Secretary of State for Health, Ana Povo – and should have gone to the chief of staff of the Secretary of State for Health Management, Cristina Vaz Tomé.
It was “a deception of services”, a “error when sending the email”, admit sources linked to the Ministry of Health.
And or email will never be forwarded again because the data collected by the newspaper shows that Cristina Vaz Tomé, then Secretary of State for Health Management (responsible for INEM) and her chief of staff did not receive advance notice of the strike by email.
Something will have failed in this sequence, because the administrative technicians work for all offices“regardless of whether they were appointed by this or that Secretary of State”, reads Diário de Notícias.
Another loose end: the two emails remained associates. In other words, whoever saw one email saw the other.
The Ministry of Health explains that it was not strange that the strike notice reached the Secretary of State for Health – because there are elements of this Secretariat that monitor negotiations with unions.
Furthermore, continues the Ministry, the INEM management also received this advance notice; and it is the direction of INEM the “legally competent entity to act in the face of the strike. (…) Furthermore, the demands contained in the notice could only be answered by INEM itself”.
Neither the Minister of Health nor the Secretaries of State were aware of the aforementioned advance notice, reinforces the Government.
