Workers from companies in the Autoeuropa Industrial Park insisted today that they are against the revision of the labor law, considering that not even the companies’ administrations demonstrate the need to change it.
“In what we have been talking to company administrations, they themselves do not demonstrate any need to change labor legislation, because what they have nowadays serves workers and companies perfectly,” Daniel Bernardino, from the Coordinating Committee of the Workers’ Committees of Companies in the Autoeuropa Industrial Park, told Lusa.
The statements were made after a meeting with UGT, in Lisbon.
Daniel Bernardino added that the workers themselves say that there is high productivity in the current legal framework.
“The workers at Autoeuropa themselves say that with the current laws there is productivity. We do not need the changed laws to continue with the productivity we already have today”, he argued.
The workers’ representative pointed out that the companies in the industrial park in Palmela have around 10 thousand workers and indicated that they “are organized to continue the fight against the labor package”.
“We know that this would diminish the rights that workers have today and, to make matters worse, this is enough”, he highlighted.
Daniel Bernardino said that the objective of the meeting, as had already happened with the CGTP, was to convey to the trade unions that the workers’ representation bodies remain available to fight against the labor package and that they will not deviate “one millimeter from” what has been done in recent months, including the general strike on December 11th.
The general secretary of UGT, Mário Mourão, stated that the meeting was positive and considered it “important to transmit all the information to the Autoeuropa worker structures” at this stage of the labor legislation negotiations.
Mário Mourão added that the workers’ representatives themselves went to UGT to “express full support for the strategy” that the trade union central has had in negotiations.
The Minister of Labor said on Tuesday that the Government and social partners are “closer to the end than the beginning” in the discussion of changes to the labor law, even though she refused to set a deadline for the negotiations to end.
The draft reform project, called “Work XXI”, was presented by the Government of Luís Montenegro (PSD and CDS-PP) on July 24, 2025 and the Minister of Labor has already signaled her intention to submit the bill in parliament, although she does not commit to a date.
The changes proposed by the Government in July received a ‘no’ from the unions, who consider the changes an attack on workers’ rights.
Business confederations applauded the reform, even as they say there is room for improvement.
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