A meeting of the Social Concertation council ended this Monday, 9th March, without an agreement between the government, employers’ organisations and the UGT trade union over proposed changes to labour law. The outcome was confirmed to national newspaper Jornal de Notícias by Francisco Calheiros, president of the Portuguese Tourism Confederation. No further meetings are scheduled.
On the same day that António José Seguro was sworn in as President of the Republic, the government again sat down with employers’ confederations and the UGT (General Union of Workers, one of the two largest and most influential trade union federations in Portugal) in an attempt to reach a compromise, but the talks failed to produce a breakthrough.
“After seven exhausting months of work, there were no concessions from the UGT. There was no political will,” said Calheiros. The head of the tourism confederation expressed regret at the outcome, but stressed that negotiations had already been under way for several months and could not continue indefinitely.
Last week, the labour minister, Maria do Rosário Palma Ramalho, said the negotiations were “closer to the end than the beginning”, maintaining confidence that a consensus could still be reached. Even so, the government has already indicated it will take their labour bill to parliament even without unanimity in the Social Concertation framework, pushing it through the legislative process and sending it to Belém Palace.
During the presidential campaign in January, António José Seguro made clear that he would not promulgate the law without an agreement between the government, employers, and trade unions. Should that scenario materialise, the legislation could become the new president’s first veto.
Speaking to national broadcaster RTP after Monday’s meeting, Armindo Monteiro, president of the Portuguese Business Confederation (CIP), said that over recent months employers and the UGT had reached agreement on more than 100 proposals, with only 12 remaining unresolved. “At today’s meeting we put this question on the table: how can we make these points flexible enough for the UGT to accept them? And there was simply no way for that to happen.”
Source: JN
