The Confederação Empresarial de Portugal (CIP) is calling for a clearer definition of the concept of job mismatch in cases of dismissal, while other business confederations remain reserved about their proposals for the upcoming social consultation meeting.
“The concept of inadaptation [to the job position] needs to be detailed,” said the president of CIP, indicating that this is one of the proposals CIP will present on Wednesday at the social consultation table. This will be the first meeting after the government, on July 24, presented the draft reform of labor legislation, which plans to review “more than a hundred” articles of the Labor Code.
According to Armindo Monteiro, by clarifying the concept of job mismatch, the aim is “to avoid arbitrariness” and “reduce litigation” and conflicts.
CIP highlights that the working relationship “is very different from what it was 20 years ago,” suggesting that the current Labor Code is outdated. They argue there is a need to find “a balance between personal and professional life.”
Regarding working time management, CIP believes the current labor code “is very clock-in-clock-out centric.” Therefore, they will advocate for the inclusion of a clause considering “performance indicators, which could relate to a specific task or job, allowing the person to do it at their preferred time.”
The idea is for companies’ specific activity peaks “to be offset with periods without activity for workers,” which “can then be transformed into more days off or money,” adds the president of CIP.
Armindo Monteiro assures that CIP has no “red lines” and calls for an open spirit from various social partners, emphasizing that the labor reform discussion “is too important to become a political-partisan matter.”
Other business confederations maintain a stance of reservation, not revealing their proposals for the social consultation on Wednesday.
“For CCP, it’s crucial that labor legislation in Portugal aligns with the imperatives of increased productivity and competitiveness necessary for the Portuguese economy, adapting to what are practically the new dynamics caused by transformations, especially the highly impactful consequences of technological developments, which naturally involve both companies and workers,” states an official source in a written response.
The confederation led by João Vieira Lopes also emphasizes that the government’s draft project is not a “profound reform,” yet it presents “several solutions that meet the aspirations of economic agents” and indicates they have asked their members to send their opinions by the end of last week, as well as “other relevant issues,” to ensure these contributions are included in the proposals for amendment they will present to the government.
On Monday, after the meeting with the President of the Republic and facing the unions’ criticism, the president of CCP called for a “platform of agreement” in consultation, recalling that agreements have been reached “even in complicated periods,” such as during the ‘troika’.
The Confederação do Turismo de Portugal (CTP) reiterates that “it’s positive the government is open to revisiting this important topic” and generally considers “the executive’s proposal positive, balanced, and allowing for competitiveness in the labor market.”
Nonetheless, “there are improvements” that CTP wants to propose, but for now, they consider it “premature to publicly announce these proposals,” an official source states in a written response.
Meanwhile, the Confederação dos Agricultores de Portugal (CAP) says it approaches the negotiation “with confidence and optimism” and notes that “essentially” they see themselves in the government’s draft, though, like other employer confederations, they admit “there’s always room for improvement.”
The labor law revision is “a necessary step to ensure, on the one hand, the sustainability of work models in a highly dynamic, digital, and technological context, which necessarily implies the dynamization of the collective bargaining model; and, on the other hand, clarifying existing doubts about specific points of the current labor legislation,” an official source adds in a written response.
Syndicates have been quite critical of the government’s draft project, considering the proposal “weakens workers’ rights.” The CGTP’s secretary-general stated, “there are two or three measures” in the draft labor law revision that are unconstitutional, citing “the facilitation of dismissals” as an example.
“How can the government propose that a worker facing a disciplinary process with dismissal intent who resorts to court to contest the dismissal, and if winning the case in court, the employer can deny that worker’s reinstatement?” he questions, stressing that the Constitution prevents dismissal without just cause.
Another issue raised by the CGTP secretary-general concerns collective bargaining, which, according to him, “puts into the employers’ hands the decision on which collective agreement to apply in companies,” violating “workers’ freedom of association.”
The CGTP urges the government to withdraw the proposal and says they will continue to present the government with proposals regulating working hours and fighting job insecurity.
The UGT also rejects the draft labor revision and calls on the government to bring “different proposals” to Wednesday’s social consultation meeting.
“If the government is unavailable, remains intransigent, and the other partners as well, that’s a strong reason for us to start forms of struggle, including, naturally, a general strike with other union organizations. That cannot be excluded,” he said, adding that the union central “will resort to all forms within its reach to reverse an intransigence situation that may arise in the social consultation.” However, the union leader says that, for now, that scenario is “premature.”
The changes foreseen in the proposal – called “Trabalho XXI” – cover areas from parenthood (including alterations in parental leave, breastfeeding, and gestational mourning) to flexible work, training in companies, or trial periods of employment contracts, also foreseeing an extension of sectors subject to minimum services in case of a strike.
