Portugal police chief on hunger strike as officers march

LISBON, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Members of Portugal's Public Security Police (PSP) marched through Lisbon on Wednesday as their union chief pledged to maintain a hunger strike for as long as was necessary.

Peixoto Rodrigues, president of the PSP's Unified Union, began his hunger strike on Tuesday, outside the Presidential Palace in the Belem neighborhood of Lisbon.

"This is a planned and calculated action, which is not against anyone but in favor of the PSP," Rodrigues told the Lusa Portuguese News Agency.

His dramatic action was timed to launch a day of protest by the majority of the PSP's 16 unions.

Protesting police officers set off from the PSP National Directorate building in the neighborhood of Penha de Franca in Lisbon and marched into the town center to demonstration outside the Ministry of Internal Administration.

Rodrigues and the marchers are protesting against the non-implementation of an Administrative Supreme Court recommendation that the state pay public holiday bonus payments and pay freeze losses dating back to 2005.

Another police demand is for an increase in bonus pay for security force work and for an indexing system to be introduced to regulate overtime pay across the board.

A further complaint relates to discrepancies in pension and social security packages that are dependent upon when officers entered service.

"There are a number of claims on the table, which the Ministry of Internal Administration has been aware of since last year without responding to or opening talks," Rodrigues said.

The ministry issued a statement saying it "remained open to discussing matters related to professional conditions."

The march had been scheduled to feature uniformed officers, but protesters yielded to a court order that they demonstrated in plain clothes.