The Prime Minister and PSD President, Luís Montenegro, announced an increase in the country’s salary objectives in Porto this Saturday, aiming for a minimum wage of 1,500 to 1,600 euros and an average salary of 2,500 to 3,000 euros. This marks a revision from previous suggestions made last Friday, where he advocated using changes in labor laws to elevate the minimum wage to 1,500 euros and the average salary to 2,000 or 2,500 euros.
The trade union confederation CGTP described Montenegro’s statements and the revised salary goals over two consecutive days as “a desperate act” linked to the “increasing participation in the general strike on December 11.” They also regarded these targets as “an insult” to millions who earn less than 1,000 euros before taxes.
“The juggling of words and numbers by the Prime Minister is an insult to more than 2.5 million workers who have a gross monthly base salary of less than 1,000 euros, affecting one in five children living in poverty due to insufficient parental income,” stated the CGTP.
The union also criticized these remarks as “an insult” to “the 1.3 million workers with precarious jobs and the 1.9 million workers working on Saturdays, Sundays, holidays, or during evenings and nights, lacking time and better living conditions.”
CGTP reiterated its stance that the labor package proposed by the government serves “the interests of employers.” The central union believes the proposed changes facilitate dismissals, increase job insecurity (by extending contract terms and reducing the presumption of employment relationships), further deregulate working hours (reintroducing individual hour banks), and individualize labor relations (by weakening collective bargaining agreements that define working conditions such as wages and hours).
Furthermore, they voiced concerns that it restricts the right to strike by expanding the scope of minimum services and conditions on exercising trade union freedom.
CGTP urged the government to withdraw this labor package proposal from the table, calling it “a real assault on workers’ rights.” The discussion should focus on “improving living and working conditions,” stated Secretary-General Tiago Oliveira in an interview with Lusa.
CGTP and UGT have called for a general strike on December 11 in response to the draft labor law reform, marking the first joint action by the two major trade union confederations since June 2013, when Portugal was under the ‘Troika’ intervention.
The Prime Minister and PSD President, Luís Montenegro, today raised his targets for national salaries, now aiming for a minimum of 1,600 euros and an average of 3,000 euros, one day after mentioning lower figures.
Lusa | 19:28 – 06/12/2025
