Associations of officers, sergeants and enlisted men condemned this Monday, March 2, the lead by parliament, with PSD, CDS and IL against, and PS’s abstention, from the review of the pension supplement, warning of consequences for the military’s “future sustainability of the institution”.
In a statement, the Association of Armed Forces Officers (AOFA) recalls that on the 27th, parliament failed initiatives – presented by Chega and PCP – which aimed to increase the pension supplement for military personnel from the Armed Forces and GNR, and security force personnel, ensuring that the reform corresponded to 90% of the last salary received.
For AOFA, “a credible Defense policy is also measured by the ability to attract, motivate and retain qualified military personnel”, and the reform regime “is part of this equation” and “to ignore it is to compromise the future sustainability of the institution and be responsible for it”.
“The institutional dignity of the Armed Forces soldiers cannot be treated as an adjustable budget variable. The military’s trust in the State is not an inexhaustible resource”, he warns.
The association regrets that “in other sectors of the State, remuneration enhancement” appears as a “priority assumed in the search for balance” but that in Defense the attention focuses “on large military equipment and external commitments, as if the Armed Forces were made up of dehumanized systems, ammunition or uniforms”.
“Based on expectation management techniques, in the first phase, a promise is made to reevaluate. Then, under the motto of inevitabilities, it is referred to the next budget or the usual cyclical priorities are invoked, which inevitably always affect Armed Forces soldiers. Meanwhile, time does its silent work: it erodes value, morale and attractiveness for a career full of demands and duties, but increasingly empty of recognition”, he laments.
In the same vein, the National Association of Sergeants (ANS), highlighted that the proposed legislative changes were rejected “with the votes against by the parties that support the current Government, accompanied by sectors that also give it political support, and with the abstention of those who, alternating government responsibilities over the years, chose not to take on the responsibility head on to correct an injustice that they know well, or that did not originate from a government of that political force” – in a reference to the PS.
The association warns that the current conditions for accessing and calculating military pensions “will create stark inequalities in the calculation of retirement pensions, penalizing military personnel with long and demanding careers, generating uncertainty and, in many cases, very significant losses at the time of the transition to retirement, with reductions that can reach half of their income”.
“At a time when political discourse invokes geopolitical instability, the need to reinforce National Defense and the strategic importance of the Armed Forces, and less than a week after the formal closure of an unprecedented operation that mobilized thousands of soldiers, for around three weeks, in support of populations buffeted by the storms that ravaged the country, a majority of deputies express their “gratitude” by opting to maintain a regime that weakens the confidence in the future of those who are always ready to serve the country and its people”, they criticize.
Also in a statement, the Association of Soldiers – which only makes reference to the PCP projects, the first to be presented – argues that the vote on the initiatives demonstrated “those who are in fact in favor of equal treatment between military personnel, and those who intend to continue treating the military as an appendage of society, dividing and discriminating them according to the year they entered the Armed Forces”.
“It will be necessary for the Minister of National Defense to tell the military what he intends to do to resolve this issue that is so important for the men and women who serve in the Armed Forces, as well as for those who are intended to be recruited and retained in the ranks, because contrary to what has been said, recruitment and retention have not been enough to meet the needs”, highlights the association, which requested an audience with Nuno Melo.
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