The Minister of Labor will meet this Monday, 23rd, with the UGT and the four business confederations to discuss changes in labor law, in a meeting without the participation of the CGTP.
The meeting is scheduled for 9:30 am at the Ministry of Labor, Solidarity and Social Security (MTSSS), in Lisbon, according to an informative note sent by Rosário Palma Ramalho’s office, last Wednesday.
The meeting should serve to take stock of the technical meetings that have been taking place between the Government, business confederations and UGT on the changes to labor law, which are being discussed in the Social Concertation, where the CGTP also has a seat.
Last Wednesday, the Minister of Labor had called the UGT and the employers’ confederations to a meeting, but the meeting ended up being held without the presence of union representatives: the CGTP was not called by the Government and the UGT announced that it would not participate in the meeting, considering it “untimely” and regretting its disclosure when it informed the Government in good time of its unavailability on this date.
An official source from the ministry had told Lusa that “UGT was invited and did not show availability at any time this week”, but that “the Government remains fully available to talk” with the trade union central.
Given the absence of the UGT, upon leaving the meeting, the business confederations indicated that they were “interested” in reaching an agreement on labor law, meaning that without the presence of the trade union center “in practice there was no meeting” and were available to negotiate with the trade union center from this week onwards.
The indication had been made by the president of the Portuguese Tourism Confederation (CTP), Francisco Calheiros, who spoke to journalists representing the three remaining business confederations.
Asked about the fact that the CGTP, which in addition to the business confederations and the UGT also has a seat on the Permanent Commission for Social Concertation (CPCS), was not invited to be present at the meeting, Francisco Calheiros refused to comment.
In statements to Lusa, the general secretary of the CGTP had accused the Government of trying to remove the inter-union from the discussion of changes to labor law and of using forms of discussion “completely outside” what has been the conduct of negotiation processes.
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. The opposition led the CGTP and UGT to jointly move towards a general strike, held on December 11, 2025.
Business confederations applauded the reform, even as they say there is room for improvement.
Faced with criticism from CGTP and UGT, the executive delivered a new proposal to UGT with some concessions, but reiterated that he is not available to withdraw the entire initiative, nor to drop the main pillars of the announced changes.
The UGT sent a counterproposal to the Government on February 4th and signaled that it has red lines in matters such as fixed-term contracting or ‘outsourcing’, whose measures it considers “unacceptable”.
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