In a press conference at the Assembly of the Republic, PCP deputy Alfredo Maia announced that the party has submitted three bills today intending to introduce several changes to the Labor Code, including altering the criteria permitting collective dismissals and the termination of job positions.
The communist bloc aims to change the criterion that mentions the “forecast reduction in the demand for services or goods” and restore the guarantee that a worker is not dismissed “if there is a job in the company compatible with their qualifications and functions.”
Additionally, the PCP wants to reverse some of the cuts imposed during the ‘troika’, reinstating the formula for calculating severance pay so that it amounts to “at least one month’s effective remuneration and seniority allowances for each year of service or corresponding fraction,” without the current limitations.
The PCP also seeks to revise the calculation for overtime remuneration.
“As you know, during the ‘troika’ period, the Passos Coelho government halved overtime payment, and subsequent changes have not ensured the reinstatement of the old formula, which was 50% for the first hour, 75% for the following hours, and 100% for work on public holidays or rest days,” argued Alfredo Maia.
In these initiatives, the communist bloc also proposes that “the mere fact” of a worker accepting provisional compensation should not prevent them from appealing to the courts to contest their dismissal.
“This contestation should have a limit of one year and not six months, as it currently stands, and this is one of the fundamental changes we propose,” noted the deputy, who described the current regime as “completely unfair.”
The PCP has been highly critical of the PSD/CDS-PP government’s draft project titled “Work XXI,” which envisions several changes to labor legislation, ranging from the realm of parenthood to flexible work, training in companies, or probationary periods of employment contracts, also foreseeing an extension of sectors subject to minimum services in the event of a strike.
Last week, the communist bloc proposed extending the initial parental leave to up to seven months, paid at 100 percent, and a daily three-hour exemption for breastfeeding or nursing until the child reaches two years old.
