There Is Already Technical Consensus in More Than 30 Articles, Says Minister

The Minister of Labor stated this Tuesday, February 24, that there is already technical consensus on “more than three dozen” articles in the proposed revision of labor law, especially in the areas of parenting, artificial intelligence and new technologies, highlighting, however, that the negotiation process is still far from complete.

Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the session “Workday: Work XXI – Legislative Reform”, which takes place at Universidade Lusíada in Porto, Rosário Palma Ramalho explained that the understandings reached so far still lack political validation.

“We have reached consensus, but only at the technical level, so there is a lack of political validation from all parties and there are three parties involved here – the employer confederations, the UGT and the Government. We have reached consensus on more than three dozen articles, especially on the subject of parenting and some matters relating to artificial intelligence and new technologies, but there is a long way to go”he stated.

The government’s proposal, called “Work XXI”, is presented as an “in-depth” review of labor legislation and foresees changes to “more than a hundred” articles, covering subjects such as dismissals, parenting and the extension of the terms of employment contracts.

The minister also recalled that the negotiation process with social partners has been ongoing for seven months and reiterated the Executive’s desire to reach an agreement through social consultation. “It is clear that we prefer to have an agreement. Contrary to what happened with the Decent Work Agenda, which was not agreed upon in the Social Concertation, this Government favored exactly the opposite and has been doing so for seven months. Exactly seven months ago today”, he highlighted.

According to Rosário Palma Ramalho, at this stage “the question of there being no agreement does not arise”, although he admits that this scenario could come to the fore, depending on the evolution of the negotiations.

On Monday, at the end of the most recent work meeting, the business confederations admitted that “there is a desire to evolve” in the dialogue, despite recognizing that it is still “a long way from an agreement”. The UGT pointed out the existence of “points of consensus”, considering them, however, still insufficient.

with Lusa