In Parliament, the Greens have recommend that Government guarantees "with meticulous rigour" that no woman, pregnant or postpartum, is dismissed for being pregnant and the Communists Party wants parental leave paid at 100% of salary for an extended period of 180 days.
All is agood cause as Portugal has ‘lost’ nearly one million children in 30 years and needs quickly to increase the birth rate but news today that Portuguese companies are insisting on a ‘no babies for five years’ policy for its female workers, apart from breaking a raft of laws, will not really help successive governments.
Certain, as yet un-named, companies are said to be forcing fecund female employees to sign a written undertaking that they will not get pregnant in the next five years. This revelation was made by Prof. Joaquim Azevedo, the leader of a multidisciplinary committee that the government has instructed to submit a plan to promote the birth rate.
The professor did not reveal the name of any of the companies that have been insisting on this illegal contractual onus.
"It is necessary to create conditions for businesses to promoting the birth rate, not for them to pose major obstacles, including forcing women to sign statements that they will not become pregnant within next five or six years," said Joaquim Azevedo in an interview at national radio station Antena 1.
The interviewer asked an official of the Commission for Equality in Labour and Employment if he is aware of such 'no baby' contracts but he claimed not to have received any formal complaints, which did not answer the question.
The topic is current as today there was a meeting of the working groups of the Permanent Committee for Social Dialogue on Birth and Reconciling Work and Family Life in Lisbon.
The Greens have presented a draft resolution in parliament that urges the Government to ensure "with meticulous rigor that no woman is dismissed for being pregnant or having given birth."
The bill from the communist party proposes a law about "collective bargaining and the protection of labour rights of pregnant workers, workers who are breastfeeding and the ban on discrimination and labour penalties."
The Communists not only are aware of the current low birth rate but also of the plight of many chldren that have been born, with 54.5% last year living in families with household incomes of less than €628 per month and more than 13,000 children in schools were flagged up for being hungry.
Economic difficulty is the main reason couples give for not having children. If the economy stays as it is, and the birth rate stays as it is, by 2060 Portugal’s population will have dropped to 6.3 million.
Professor Joaquim Azevedo is adamant that "Portugal will be unsustainable in 40 or 50 years" if nothing is done to reverse the current situation.
