Minister: New labor law will strengthen competitiveness

The Minister of Labor, Maria do Rosário Palma Ramalho, wants to “modernize the legal framework for labor” through the draft Labor XXI project , which will strengthen the “competitiveness of the economy through various measures to make labor regimes more flexible.”

"This preliminary draft, Trabalho XXI, follows on from the tripartite agreement signed last year with the social partners, including the Portuguese Farmers' Confederation (CAP)," said Maria do Rosário Palma, Minister of Labor, Solidarity, and Social Security, speaking at the European Seminar "Social Dialogue and the Pact for Skills in the Agri-Food Sector," organized in partnership with the European Commission, in Lisbon. "This is about fulfilling an objective that was signed there," she added.

The minister argued that the reform brings the “possibility of stimulating the active life of both young people and seniors” by “promoting dynamic collective bargaining in the image of the most dynamic European economies” with more “space for collective bargaining”.

"I've heard some opinions lately that none of this is necessary because the country is in a state of full employment, with unemployment at a minimum. That's not our conviction," he said, adding that it is precisely at a time of comfort in terms of economic indicators that structural reform should be considered.

"If this reform is thought of in a time of crisis, we will only be responding to the crisis, but in reality we will not be able to reflect on the necessary measures to launch a reform [...] namely, making the intermittent work regime more flexible, making the fixed-term work regime more flexible, particularly short-term work," the minister argued.

The CGTP and the UGT have already rejected the Government's proposal, but the minister says she has good expectations for the social concertation meeting on Wednesday , the first after the Government presented on July 24 the preliminary draft reform of labor legislation, which provides for the revision of "more than a hundred" articles of the Labor Code.

The changes envisaged in the proposal — called Trabalho XXI — range from the area of ​​parenthood (with changes to parental leave, breastfeeding and gestational bereavement ) to flexible work, training in companies or trial periods for employment contracts, also providing for an expansion of the sectors that will be covered by minimum services in the event of a strike.