“We shall today hand in the Common Demand Proposal for 2019, which was approved at a summit of unions on 22 June," Ana Avoila said at an impromptu news conference in front of the Ministry of Finance building in Lisbon. "It is a proposal that, this year, is being handed in earlier."

Among the demands in the document is one for a 4% increase in salaries and pensions.

“We are still awaiting the government's counterproposal to our demands," she said, adding that “it makes sense for the government to give a response and resolve the problems and ... not say that they don't have time."

Negotiations on the 2019 deal could start on 1 September, she argued, noting that unions had organised discussions on the subject "in hundreds and hundreds of workplaces" before drafting the final document.

There is a need to boost for civil servants' salaries and pensions, she said, given that they “have been frozen” since 2009 - resulting in an 18.9% loss in purchasing power - while career progression by seniority “has been blocked” even longer,

In addition, the Frente Comum wants to see the minimum monthly salary in the civil service raised to €650 - as against the current national minimum salary of €580, which for civil servants has already this year by €55.07.