The Vice-President of the Government announced that, in the next 45 days, 150 workers will be integrated into the Regional Public Administration staff in the next 45 days. This measure applies to workers hired "under fixed-term or service provision contracts for over two years or more than 28 months."

Speaking at the Legislative Assembly in Horta, Sérgio Ávila said the Regional Government complies with the provisions of article 7 of the Budget for 2017, which was published Thursday in the Official Gazette.

The Vice-President stressed that this figure "represents 0.9 percent of the total universe of civil servants," revealing very few precarious jobs due to the "tremendous effort" undertaken in the stabilisation of public administration.

In this regard, he mentioned that 333 of 446 workers hired in the last two years have been integrated into the regional administration staff on a definitive basis; 113 remain hired on employment contacts.

"This means that 75 of the workers hired to the Public Administration in the last two years were integrated into the permanent staff," Sérgio Ávila said, adding that "three in every hired four workers have jointed the permanent staff."

Assuming the existence of precarious situations and in compliance with the provisions set out in the Programme of the Government, similarly to what was carried out in 1999 and 2008, the Government proposed the inclusion of an article approved unanimously at the Legislative Assembly a month ago in the Budget for this year.

Under Article 7 of the Regional Legislative Decree of the Budget for 2017, the Government has made possible the integration of all workers under the general career scheme or under provisional appointment hired on a fixed-term contract for a period of at least years into the Regional Public Administration staff, provided that they meet the permanent needs of regional services and entities."

It also proposes the integration of workers who have been providing services under an agreement contract or task system for a period over three years, uninterruptedly, into the Regional Administration, fulfilling permanent needs.

Currently, there are several workers in this situation: 65 in the Senior Technician career, 26 in the Technical Assistant career, 36 in the Medical Staff, six in the Technical Diagnosis and Therapy Staff, 14 in the Operations Assistant career, two in the Nursing career and one in the Information Technology career.

"We can say that, as opposed to having to wait six months to "do math" - and as I had said -, we only needed the date of publication to know how many people were in these situations at the distance of a click," the Vice-President said, adding that, complying with this article, the Government will "integrate all hired workers."