On May 25, the government closed the discussion on the so-called “decent work agenda”.
The diploma will be approved in June by the Council of Ministers. These are some of the 70 measures that appear in the final document.
FIGHT AGAINST PRECARIOUSNESS:
– Reinforcement of the rules on succession of contracts for the use of temporary work;
– In case of signing or renewing a contract of use with an unlicensed temporary work company (ETT), the integration is done with an indefinite contract, at the user company;
– Obligation to enter into an indefinite contract between ETT and the employee whenever the latter is assigned, under successive contracts with different users, for more than four years;
– Sticter rules for the renewal of temporary work contracts, setting a limit of four renewals.
STRENGTHENING THE REGULATION OF OPERATORS IN THE TEMPORARY WORK SECTOR
– Requirement for a percentage of workers in temporary work companies to have more stable contracts;
– Greater control and demand in the requirements for the attribution and maintenance of the licences of temporary work companies;
– Accessory sanction of inhibition of activity for partners, managers, administrators and other members of corporate bodies of companies (ETT, private placement agencies) convicted in the exercise of their activity.
STRENGTHEN THE FIGHT AGAINST FALSE INDEPENDENT WORK
– Application of the special action for recognition of the existence of an employment contract to situations in which the service provider acts as an individual entrepreneur;
– Extention to individual entrepreneurs, where there is economic dependence on a company, the application of a contribution rate to the company benefiting from the services.
DISCOURAGE THE RESOURCE TO NON-PERMANENT WORK
– Reinforcement of the rules concerning the succession of fixed-term contracts, namely preventing the new admission or assignment of a worker through a contract (term, temporary or provision of services) whose execution takes place, in the same job, for the same object or in the same professional activity;
– Definition of criteria for stability of bonds on the procedures relating to concession contracts by the State and other public entities;
– Temporarily prevent the contracting of outsourcing services to satisfy the needs provided by workers whose job has been covered by collective dismissal and the termination of the job;
– Extension of compensation to 24 days a year in the event of termination of a fixed-term employment contract (certain or uncertain).
PREVENT RISKS AND ABUSE RELATED TO THE TRIAL PERIOD
– Application of the extended trial period for young people is limited to those who have not previously had fixed-term contracts with a duration equal to or greater than 90 days, even with another employer;
– The period of notice for termination of the contract during the trial period, after more than 120 days have elapsed, it becomes 30 days;
– Duty of mandatory communication to ACT, within 15 days, of the termination of the contract during the trial period;
STRENGTHEN THE FIGHT AGAINST UNDECLARED WORK
– Reinforcement of the sanctioning framework for totally undeclared work, namely by criminalising the use of this work;
– Reinforcement of the accessory sanction in order to penalise all companies convicted of situations related to undeclared work, namely by introducing weighting factors in the access to public tenders, public support and active employment policies;
– Obligation to register, on a weekly basis, workers assigned or placed by other companies on farms and construction sites;
– Simplification of procedures to facilitate the movement/transfer between countries of workers from the same company or group of companies, as long as they are linked to the company or group of companies through a permanent employment contract.
PROMOTE CONCILIATION BETWEEN PROFESSIONAL, PERSONAL AND FAMILY LIFE
– Express authorisation of workers with children under six years of age or children with a disability or chronic illness, regardless of age, to apply work schedule adaptability schemes and hour banks;
– Extension to workers with children under eight years of age or children with a disability or chronic illness the right to work remotely, subject to sharing between men and women and when compatible with the functions.
STRENGTHENING WORK PROTECTION FOR INFORMAL CAREGIVERS
– Caregiver licence as an annual entitlement;
– Extension of the right to be absent from work for 15 days, without loss of rights, except for remuneration, to non-main informal caregivers whose status has been recognised (up to 4th degree kinship);
– Expansion of the access to flexible work arrangements for caregivers, namely teleworking, flexible working hours and/or part-time;
– Introduction of guarantees for the caregiver.
PROMOTE ADMINISTRATIVE SIMPLIFICATION
– Automatic communication of the hiring of foreign workers by Social Security to the Authority for Working Conditions (ACT);
– Single communication of admission of workers to Social Security and work compensation funds.
By Dr Eduardo Serra Jorge
|| features@algarveresident.com
Dr Eduardo Serra Jorge is founding member, senior partner and CEO of lawyers firm Eduardo Serra Jorge & Maria José Garcia – Sociedade de Advogados, R.L., created in 1987.
In his column, he addresses legal issues affecting foreign residents in Portugal.
Faro office at Gaveto das Ruas Pedro Nunes e José de Matos, 5 R/C
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