Charity Care Workers March Through Porto for Better Pay, With Ten of the 18 Grades in Their Sector's Extended Pay Table Within 68 Euros of the Minimum Wage

More than a hundred workers from Portugal's social-sector charities marched through Porto on Saturday 7 November to demand better pay and proper career structures, RTP reported. The march, which set off from São Bento station at 10:30, was backed by a 24-hour national strike across the sector.

These charities are known as IPSS (instituições particulares de solidariedade social, private non-profit social institutions). They run many of the care homes, day centres, crèches and disability services that families rely on, so pay and staffing there affect far more people than the workers themselves.

Who organised it and what they want

The strike notice was filed on 20 October by FEPCES, the federation of commerce, office and services unions that includes the CESP union. It covered every IPSS service nationwide from midnight to midnight, including staff of contractors working inside the charities, with minimum services kept for essential needs. Its stated aims are:

• a significant pay rise;
• better careers and recognition of the professions;
• a 35-hour maximum working week for all staff;
• regulated working hours that leave room for family life;
• permanent posts at the charity itself for contractor staff filling permanent jobs.

The march poster carries the logos of the CGTP union confederation and about ten unions, among them CESP, the teachers' federation FENPROF and the nurses' union SEP. It says most workers start each year with their pay "absorbed" by the national minimum wage.

The march was the high point of a campaign that began on 15 October. The SEP says unions have held protests every Thursday since then. Their target is the 2027 revision of the sector's collective agreement with the CNIS (Confederação Nacional das Instituições de Solidariedade, the main charities' federation). The SEP described this year's revision as making little progress.

How close pay sits to the minimum

The national minimum wage has been 920 euros a month since 1 January (Decreto-Lei n.º 139/2025). The general pay table for 2026 in the CNIS agreement with the FNSTFPS public-service unions' federation, published in the Boletim do Trabalho e Emprego (labour bulletin) of 8 June, starts at exactly that figure and tops out at 1,462 euros. Ten of its 18 grades pay between 920 and 988 euros.

An ordinance published on 3 November (Portaria n.º 480/2026/1) extends those tables, from Sunday 8 November, to mainland charity staff outside the agreement, backdated to 1 July. The government's impact study counted about 49,600 full-time workers, 91.8 percent of them women. Our report on that ordinance explains who is covered.

The charities' side

Speaking at the campaign's first protest in October, CNIS president Lino Maia admitted the workers are badly paid, Lusa reported via Observador. He said the state's cooperation agreements cover on average 38 to 40 percent of the charities' costs. Users' fees cover about 33 percent, so together they reach about 73 percent on average, he said. He added that more than half of the institutions end each year in deficit.

What it means for you

• If a relative uses a care home, day centre or crèche: Saturday's strike was a one-day action. The union pages we checked had announced no further strike dates by Sunday morning.
• If you work for a charity: check your grade against the 2026 table, and whether you are owed back pay from 1 July under the extension.
• On fees: our explainer on how social-sector care-home fees work sets out what families pay.