During remarks to journalists as the protest marched past Marquês de Pombal, heading towards Avenida da Liberdade in Lisbon, Catarina Martins argued that if the government’s package maintains the terms of the draft approved in July, “a President of the Republic must immediately send it for preventive constitutional review.”
“I believe it is very important for all presidential candidates to express their opinions on what the government has proposed,” added the MEP and former coordinator of BE, viewing the labor package as “an attack on work” and a violation of the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic regarding the right to strike and the prohibition of dismissals without just cause.
António Filipe, speaking to the press a little further along, described the labor package as “a weapon of the employers against the workers” and promised to be “in solidarity with the forms of struggle that workers decide to undertake to prevent this proposal to change the liberal legislation from going ahead.”
“I know the presidential election is on the 18th [of January], the President of the Republic will only take office on [March 9th]; I hope that by then this bill is defeated,” added the former deputy and presidential candidate supported by the PCP.
Jorge Pinto, meanwhile, considered the government’s draft as it stands to be “a tremendous setback in workers’ rights” not seen “for many years,” signifying “more precariousness” and “more working hours, an attack on the right to strike, and facilitating dismissals without allowing the workers’ right to defense.”
“As President of the Republic, and I say this with full clarity, I would politically veto this proposal if it reached me in its current form. I believe that the government and the political parties in the Assembly of the Republic still have time to listen to these thousands of people,” stated the deputy and presidential candidate supported by Livre.
Among the changes in the government’s draft labor law revisions are the extension of fixed-term contracts, the return of the individual hours bank, the end of restrictions on external hiring after layoffs, the revision of parental leave, and strengthening of mandatory minimum services in case of a strike.
