The Portuguese government hopes to save €79 million this year and €208 million in 2014 from its recently-implemented 40-hour workweek for the public sector. Savings estimated for 2013 are more than double the figure it had predicted in May (€36 million).
In a document handed to the Lisbon Administrative Court, the Ministry of Finance presented its estimations in an attempt to argue its case in the face of heavy contestation from various public sector unions opposing the increase in the weekly working hours from 35 to 40. The measure came into force on September 28.
The budgetary saving of €79 million is more than double the €36 million it had reported to the Troika in May, along with other targets within the State Reform.
In the same report, signed by Portuguese Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho, the alterations to the working week for public sector workers were expected to generate savings of €204 million in 2014, but in a recent review the target has been raised to €208 million.
This made a good enough argument for the court to reject an injunction by the tax workers’ union (STI) which requested the suspension of the 40-hour workweek law.
It is also the intention of the government to bring the public sector workweek in line with other member states and the private sector.
“Attempts to block the 40-hour law could result in the government’s budgetary targets not being met and could put at risk the State’s finances,” said the Ministry of Finance.
||Nurses say longer working week will affect patients
A longer working week is expected to take its toll on the quality of care provided by nurses, according to the Portuguese Nurses Union (SEP), which announced it will be appealing in court against the government’s decision to increase weekly working hours from 35 to 40.
SEP representative Isabel Barbosa said: “Nurses, just like other workers who will be working 40 hours per week, should refuse to do so because it represents a rise in exploitation and a devaluation of their work.”
She considered nursing “a demanding and risky job which deals with suffering every day”, which is why, in her opinion, the heavier working hours will have an effect on the quality of nursing services.
The representative also shared her concern about the risk of lay-offs affecting nurses the same way it is affecting workers in the public sector in general.
For all these reasons, Barbosa confirmed that SEP would be presenting its case in the Lisbon Administrative Court.
“We will not give up this fight. We will keep striving towards a 35-hour working schedule,” she added.
The representative was speaking at the Santa Maria Hospital in Lisbon, where a black banner was put up by the union as an act of protest. Nurses are now required to work an extra hour per day with no extra pay.
