“O Livre expresses profound concern over the proposed amendments to the Labor Law by the Government,” stated the party led by Rui Tavares in a communiqué.
“The draft proposals represent clear setbacks in parental rights and gender equality, demonstrating a significant lack of understanding regarding issues related to gestation and breastfeeding,” it criticized.
Livre argues that “for parties that have always positioned themselves as defenders of families, there is probably no greater attack on families and on the rights of women and children than this.”
From the party’s perspective, in the previous legislature, during the discussion of the citizen legislative initiative on parental leave, which was then rejected by “the will of the right,” the lack of awareness of the importance of sharing parental responsibilities became evident.
“We are working on proposals in these areas, but we have a very clear stance in our electoral program, which was indeed part of initiatives we presented in the previous legislature,” it emphasized.
In an interview this weekend with TSF and Jornal de Notícias, the Minister of Labor, Solidarity and Social Security, Maria do Rosário Palma Ramalho, stated that some mothers abuse the right to leave for nursing their children and considered it difficult to understand why children over two years of age need to be breastfed during working hours.
The draft labor legislation reform, which the Government states includes a review of “over a hundred articles of the Labor Code,” has been presented to social partners and will be negotiated in the Social Concertation framework.
