The head of Portugal's Business Confederation has set the tone for political and labour relations by calling the Socialist/left wing alliance's plan to raise the national minimum wage, a case of "experimentalism" which is to be resisted.
The President of the Republic, Cavaco Silva, (pictured) currently is trying to determine the country’s political future and today met the president of the Business Confederation of Portugal, António Saraiva who described the meeting as "productive" adding that he was critical towards the minimum wage proposals from the Socialist Party in concert with the other left wing parties making p the current alliance.
Saraiva said that the country’s stability will be threatened and he accused the left wing parties and the unions of making decisions that should rightly be debated in a 'scoial dialogue' process, not simply by passing legislation in pariament.
"It’s not a question that the minimum wage should not be looked at, but that there already is a committee appointed to see if it should go up next year. This should not be done by a decree law in parliament but in agreement with social partners."
The business sector leader said that the Socialist Party’s declaration that the country’s minimum wage will rise is an attempt to bypass the normal social dialogue with the business sector and that simply issuing a decree in parliament is not the way to go about things.
"The competitiveness of the Portuguese economy is not compatible with experimentalism, is not compatible with setbacks and is not compatible with reversals."
While the Business Federation does not publicly take a position on the decision that Cavaco Silva should take on appointing a future government in the wake of Tuesday’s collapse of the ruling coalition, Saraiva has made it crystal clear as to his anti-left wing leanings.
Wage rates are not the only aspect of the new socialist dream that Saraiva balks at, the reinstatement of four cancelled public holidays being another which he sees as a backwards step.
Cavaco Silva has a full day ahead of him as, unable to make his mind up on his own, is holding meetings with representatives from the Confederation of Trade and Services of Portugal, the Confederation of Farmers of Portugal, and later the Portuguese Tourism Confederation.
The meetings are being held so that the president can ‘analyse the current political situation’ after the fall of the PSD/CDS-PP government.
