In a message posted on Facebook, union leader Guadalupe Simões said that SEP refuses to sign a memorandum of understanding without first discussing the matter with its members, but still plans to meet with other unions "for convergence regarding the discussion of future career structures."

CNESE (the union federation that includes the SEP), "as always, will not put forward any career proposal without discussing it with the nurses. The career [structure] negotiated in 2009 was under public discussion for two years (2003 and 2004) with dozens of meetings, in all institutions and across the country. And it does not sign documents without the proper bodies being consulted and making a decision on them," Simões said.

The four unions representing the nurses, organised in two federations (FENSE and CNESE), met on Thursday at the Nurses' Order, as proposed by the head of the order Ana Rita Cavaco, but the meeting ended without agreement.

In the text that she published on Facebook, Simões explained that "the SEP did not abandon the meeting" and that, at the meeting, "the Order demanded that CNESE sign a memorandum of understanding that included a career structure and salary grids," proposal, which she considers "could have been sent in advance so that the trade unions' leadership could decide."

She also said that CNESE recalled that, following strikes in recent weeks, "in the negotiation meetings of 12 and 14 [September] this issue was discussed with the Ministry of Health, which made a commitment (explicitly in the proposal sent on 18 September) to review/negotiate a career structure in 2018."

Faced with this stalemate, "CNESE left the meeting, but not before continuing to demonstrate its willingness to meet with FENSE [the other trade union federation]with a view to convergence regarding the discussion of the future career structure."

Lusa tried to contact the Nurses 'Union and the Nurses' Order, but has so far been unsuccessful in reaching either.