The social partners left their 53rd meeting without an agreement on labor reform, in what should be the last technical meeting before reaching a compromise or breaking off negotiations once and for all. The impasse lies in the position that UGT will take, as well as in the ultimate willingness of the Government to give in on some of the ‘red lines’ highlighted by the trade union central.
The version of the draft amendments to labor legislation that comes out of this meeting will be the one that UGT will take to the meeting of its national secretariat, scheduled for this Thursday, the 9th. And its general secretary, Mário Mourão, will be mandated to approve or reject the agreement. And in this case, the Government document will go on to be voted on in Parliament, which should happen “soon”, as Prime Minister Luís Montenegro has said.
Rejection seems a very likely scenario, considering that, despite the 60 points of consensus and more than 20 concessions from the Executive regarding its initial proposal, the Minister of Labor Maria do Rosário Palma Carvalho once again insisted on some of the ‘red lines’ of the initial phase of the negotiation that began in July 2025.
In the last document in which the government summarized the state of play of the negotiations, at the end of March, it maintains its insistence on an individual time bank, by agreement, with the worker, as well as the possibility of non-reinstatement in the case of unfair dismissal, as long as compensation is provided. This possibility already exists in the current law, but only for micro-enterprises, with the Government wanting to extend it to other business segments.
Another point that the Government wants to maintain is the permission to use outsourcing after a layoff, but as long as it does not apply to the company’s core activity, and even then, only six months after the layoff of staff.
In the case of fixed-term contracting, the hypothesis was almost consensual that instead of the deadline not increasing to three years, but rather to two and a half years, but now, the reference is once again three years. Still regarding term contracts, the initial version provided that the fact that the employee “never worked under an employment contract for an indefinite period” would serve as the basis for concluding a contract of this type, which generated criticism for risking “trapping” workers in precarious employment. In the new version, the basis becomes the hiring of an employee who “has never worked under an employment contract”. This means that the universe of young people who can be hired on a fixed-term basis is reduced.
On the other hand, in the initial version, the Government proposed increasing the limit of fixed-term contracts from the current two years to three years, and of uncertain-term contracts from the current four years to five years. It was on the table, in the negotiations that have been taking place, an increase to two and a half years of the ceiling for fixed-term contracts, and the end of the limit in the case of indefinite-term contractsaccording to ECO. However, the initial version was once again under discussion: maximum three years for fixed-term contracts, five years for uncertain-term contracts.
The CGTP was once again left out of these negotiations, and once again, held a press conference at the door of the Ministry of Labor, with its general secretary, Tiago Rodrigues, accusing the Government of having an “anti-democratic and anti-constitutional” stance.
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