From November 1st, those Algarve council workers who had been forced to work a 40-hour week can relax back into their traditional 35-hours.
The Algarve mayors’ group, AMAL, made the announcement following the government’s failure at the Constitutional Court to have the 40-hour week imposed on all public sector workers.
The enhanced working week legislation was challenged by the Union of Public Administration Workers and the National Association of Parishes.
The Constitutional Court judges ruled that the 40-hour week rule was "interfering in the collective bargaining agreements between Portugal’s councils and their workers" which the judges saw as “a violation of the principle of autonomy of local government.”
AMAL president Jorge Botelho said the ruling was an “important decision” which had taken a full two years before a decision was announced.
In reality, many councils and did not impose the extra five hours of work on their staff as such an obvious loophole was deliberately left in the legislation that it was easy for any council to ignore the law with impunity.
Botelho said that the more relaxed 35-hour week would increase the well-being of council staff and enable them to “spend more time with their families and for leisure pursuits.”
The AMAL president’s thinking also leads him to believe that a lighter 35-hour week work schedule will help “guarantee an increase of productivity in the workplace” but did not hazard a guess as to how this could be achieved.
See also: http://www.algarvedailynews.com/news/6915-portugal-s-council-workers-go-back-to-a-35-hour-week
