The National Secretariat of the UGT (Socialist-backed General Workers’ Union) has once again rejected the government’s revised proposal to amend labour legislation.
In a resolution approved unanimously yesterday, the UGT’s highest executive body said there had been insufficient progress in negotiations and that the current proposal did not yet allow for consensus.
The trade union confederation, led by Mário Mourão, emphasised that this position would be formally communicated at the plenary meeting of the social conciliation (an ongoing tripartite dialogue between the government, employers’ organisations and trade union confederations), where the next phase of the negotiating process is expected to take place.
“The UGT National Secretariat hopes that the progress and the work of social dialogue will not be undermined”, he added.
In a statement defending “Work XXI with rights” (the union’s version of the government’s ‘Work XX1’ proposal), UGT and its associates appealed for further talks, saying they will continue to push for fairer, more inclusive labour laws that address current and future workplace challenges while strengthening collective bargaining and trade unions.
In the statement, UGT identified nine primary points preventing an agreement, including extending the duration and grounds for fixed-term contracts, removing the reinstatement guarantee following unlawful dismissal, restoring individual hour ‘banks’, and allowing regrading with a loss of pay.
The union also highlights the non-application of collective agreements to outsourced workers, the elimination of arbitration mechanisms, the facilitation of the expiry of collective agreements, the expansion of minimum services during strikes, and restrictions on union activity within companies.
UGT said that despite eight months of committed participation, the government’s proposed reform still contains “unacceptable” options – while structural proposals from the UGT remain unaddressed.
“The UGT has never hesitated to enter the negotiation process, has never left it, and has always been and will always be on the side of social dialogue, as is widely recognised,” the statement stresses.
This latest impasse comes in the context of labour minister Rosário Palma Ramalho having said that whether or not there is agreement with the unions, the government plans to take its proposals for labour reform to parliament regardless.
The government introduced its “Work XXI” draft bill last summer, describing it as a “far-reaching reform of labour law”, that is necessary for the country to ‘get out of its rut’.
Unions have never agreed with that description, leading to the general strike, called by the CGTP and UGT on December 11.
Source: LUSA
