The Minister of Labor, Solidarity, and Social Security assured today in Leiria that the Government has no red lines in negotiating changes to labor legislation and hopes the opposition shares the same stance.
“The Government has set no red lines but hopes the opposition does not either, because constructive dialogue is truly without red lines”, emphasized Rosário Palma Ramalho, during the symbolic laying of the first stone for the construction of a daycare center at Santo André hospital in Leiria.
The minister stated it is a preliminary project which serves as “a working basis for discussing the issues,” acknowledging it is a “profound reform,” with “more than 100 changes just in the Labor Code, but also altering eight more laws.”
Rosário Palma Ramalho views “this process with great calm” and believes “the social partners are also approaching it calmly, as this Government already has a year and a half of very good dialogue with the social partners, and that is what will continue.”
The minister highlighted that, being the preliminary project a work base, “everything is on the table, as long as the Government maintains its guiding line regarding this project, which is a line of, on one hand, flexibilizing some very rigid labor regimes.”
“Portugal has a deficit in competitiveness and productivity […], so it must recover. It has a low salary level,” so “it must find solutions for them to effectively rise.”
According to Rosário Palma Ramalho, “this is one of the main points.” Another point is “ensuring workers’ rights regarding a set of matters, some of which were not as vocalized during the summer, but the trade union associations and confederations know they are there.”
Stating that “there will be significant norms of promotion and strengthening of workers’ rights,” the minister added that the “another point is to reinforce collective bargaining and the role of trade union associations and ensure the compatibility of the right to strike with the provision of urgent social services in a slightly more balanced manner.”
“All this is on the table. As long as this guiding line remains, norm A, B, or C, naturally, or all of them, can undergo the refinement they need,” she stressed.
The Government’s draft for revising labor legislation, presented at the end of July, began to be discussed with the social partners last week.
