The government’s draft proposal for revising labor legislation begins discussions with social partners this Wednesday, aiming to revise “more than a hundred” articles of the Labor Code. The proposed changes range from parenting areas (including parental leave, breastfeeding, and gestational mourning) to flexible work, corporate training, and trial periods in employment contracts.
Furthermore, there is a proposal to expand the sectors that will be subject to minimum services in the event of a strike.
Labor Revision to Enhance “Economic Competitiveness”
Labor Minister Maria do Rosário Palma Ramalho aims to “modernize the legal framework of work” through the Trabalho XXI draft project, which is set to enhance “economic competitiveness through various measures of labor regime flexibility”.
The proposed changes address areas such as parenting (with amendments in parental leave, breastfeeding, and gestational mourning), flexible work, corporate training, or trial periods in employment contracts, while also contemplating an extension of sectors covered by minimum services in case of a strike.
Lusa | 08:23 – 09/09/2025
“This Trabajo XXI draft project follows the tripartite agreement signed last year with social partners, including the Confederation of Portuguese Farmers (CAP)”, stated the Minister of Labor, Solidarity and Social Security, Maria do Rosário Palma, at the European Seminar “The Social Dialogue and the Pact for Skills in the Agri-food Sector” organized in partnership with the European Commission in Lisbon on Tuesday.
“Fulfilling a goal that was signed there is the aim,” she added.
The minister argued that the reform brings the “possibility of stimulating active lives for both young people and seniors,” through the “promotion of a dynamic collective bargaining, akin to the most vibrant European economies” with more “space for collective contracting“.
“I have heard some opinions suggesting that none of this is necessary because the country is in full employment, with unemployment at minimum levels, but that is not our belief,” she said.
She added that it is precisely in comfortable economic times that structural reform should be considered.
“If that reform is thought of during a crisis, we simply respond to the crisis without the necessary reflection to launch a reform […] notably the flexibility of intermittent work regimes, flexibility in fixed-term work regimes, particularly short-term fixed work,” the official defended.
UGT: “Government’s Labor Proposal is Reconciliation with Dignified Work”
Also yesterday, UGT Secretary-General, Mário Mourão, criticized the government’s proposal to alter labor legislation as “a reconciliation with the agenda for dignified work,” denouncing the government’s “ideological obsession”.
“The labor legislation, currently presented under the name Trabalho 21 by the Government, is, in our view, an ideological obsession that does not resonate with past difficult situations experienced in Portugal“, Mário Mourão told journalists after hosting the Secretary-General of the Socialist Party (PS), José Luís Carneiro, at the UGT headquarters in Lisbon.
The union leader highlighted Portugal’s growing economy and low unemployment rates, questioning why this proposal arises in Social Concertation.
“It appears more like a reconciliation with the dignified work agenda, rather than a genuine willingness to reform labor legislation for the country’s response within the European space where it is integrated“, he argued.
Mário Mourão seeks clarification “on whether the government remains open to negotiating and dialoguing with union social partners”.
“The government, at the negotiating table, has taken a side in the concertation, but we will not back down; we will insist on negotiation and dialogue,” he assured.
If some of the proposals persist, the union leader issued a warning: “they will not count on UGT to reach any agreement”.
“What do we have left? UGT has the streets, the struggle, its unions, and naturally, will determine actions and fights against these measures and against this labor package,” he anticipated.
The UGT Secretary-General warned of a “difficult moment for Portuguese workers” with this proposal.
“We are facing not a reform of labor legislation, but a civilizational disruption. A setback Portugal hasn’t experienced since April 25,” he warned.
Mário Mourão also urged young people “not to abandon Portugal” and to fight “with their unions and representatives” to change the situation and the “generational setback” the government wants to impose.
