“The UGT will continue to engage in dialogue and negotiation,” stated Mário Mourão, speaking to journalists before a bilateral meeting with the Minister of Labor, Solidarity and Social Security at the Ministry of Labor in Lisbon.
The general secretary of UGT further announced that the union federation will issue a formal notice for a general strike on December 11, in coordination with CGTP, which has already issued its notice on Monday and remains open to negotiations thereafter.
“Tomorrow, we will deliver the strike notice with our union leaders, and up until December 11, and afterwards on December 12, we will be ready to sit down at the table,” he noted.
When questioned about the new proposal sent by the Government to UGT, Mário Mourão remarked that the document “retains some measures” and adds others that are “worse” than the initial proposal.
He expressed “the expectation” that today’s meeting will bring “new measures” from the Government and hopes that the minister will be “sensitive” to the union’s demands and “willing to change” the proposal.
Mário Mourão also declined to outline UGT’s ‘red lines’ concerning changes to labor laws, arguing that “doing so limits negotiations.”
“These will be set forth in due course,” he added.
Following the strike announcement, the Ministry of Labor presented UGT with a new proposal, modifying the draft presented in July. However, the union described these changes as “very little” to call off the strike.
The document, as previously reported, allows for concessions such as simplifying dismissals in medium-sized businesses and reducing mandatory training hours in micro-enterprises. It also opens the door for the reinstatement of three vacation days linked to attendance, canceled during the ‘troika’ intervention. However, it maintains other measures highly criticized by the unions, such as the return of individual hours banks and the revocation of restrictions on ‘outsourcing’ in cases of dismissal.
