The employers’ confederations ended negotiations around the labor package. The confederations of industry, commerce, tourism and agriculture have assumed that it is not worth continuing the dialogue, given the position taken by the UGT, which understands that the points negotiated so far are insufficient to sign an agreement.
The decision was announced this Monday, after another meeting that brought together the leaders of the four employers’ confederations, the Minister of Labor, Rosário Palma Ramalho, and the secretary general of UGT, Mário Mourão.
According to the employer confederations, the minister agreed that it made no sense to continue the process. However, despite highlighting the “UGT’s intransigence”, a government source told PÚBLICO that “the Government will continue to make every effort at dialogue, so that an agreement on the preliminary draft Work XXI is possible”.
For this to happen, the executive will have to convince the bosses to return to the negotiating table, since social consultation agreements involve three parties: Government, bosses and UGT (CGTP said, from the beginning, that the objective was for the Government to withdraw its proposal).
“There were important issues regarding which employers’ confederations were open, but the UGT did not consider this sufficient and reported that there were no conditions for an agreement”, highlighted João Vieira Lopes, president of the Confederation of Commerce and Services of Portugal (CCP) at the end of the meeting that took place at the Ministry of Labor, in Lisbon.
The director said that at practically all points “there were attempts to find solutions” and that there were concessions in fixed-term contracting. Regarding the individual time bank, the outsourcing or reinstatement after unlawful dismissal, it was not possible to find points of contact.
“Given the UGT’s position, it makes no sense to continue this dialogue. After all these months of negotiation, the CCP and the other employers’ confederations assumed that it is not worth continuing this process and the Government agreed”, added the leader, noting that the executive will now have to take a position on the matter.
The president of the Portuguese Tourism Confederation (CTP), Francisco Calheiros, also regretted that, after more than two dozen meetings in recent weeks, it was not possible to reach an agreement.
“It is UGT’s responsibility that there is no agreement”, summarized Armindo Monteiro, leader of the Portuguese Business Confederation (CIP), noting that, among the more than one hundred proposals to change labor laws, only in 12 points did there continue to be a great distance between the partners.
“I respect the position of the CGTP, which said it would not negotiate and that it wanted the Government to withdraw the labor package. What is not understood is that it does not want to appear extreme and is looking for an excuse to not have an agreement”, he criticized, adding that “it is not usual to see the UGT have the attitude it did” during the process.
UGT “did not abandon negotiations”
On the UGT side, Mário Mourão, rejects the accusations of intransigence and warns that the proposal “does not meet the conditions for UGT to give its agreement”.
Asked by Lusa about whether the negotiations around the labor package ended this Monday, Mourão declined to confirm the rupture: “You have to ask the Government. The UGT was as far as possible. It was the Government that said that there were 70 consensual measures, but it was still not possible for the UGT to give the agreement because the Government’s main pillars remained, and the minister said that she would not give up on them”.
Speaking to PÚBLICO, the deputy general secretary, Sérgio Monte, also made it clear that the trade union central “has not abandoned negotiations”.
“If the bosses think that the negotiations are over, it is because they are comfortable with the Government’s proposal”, he added, questioning the reason for the bosses’ rush to end the process.
If it is unable to resume social dialogue, it is up to the Montenegro executive to send its proposal – with the amendments it deems relevant, as Palma Ramalho has already said – to Parliament. Once there, you will have to negotiate it with Chega to get a majority.
Afterwards, it will still have to pass the scrutiny of the new President of the Republic, who also took office this Monday. During the campaign, António José Seguro had already assumed that his stance in relation to changes in labor legislation will depend “on what arrives in Belém”.
“If the Government’s initial document arrives, I will veto it politically because it does not solve any problem, on the contrary, it will create more social instability”, he stated, giving as examples the extension of fixed-term contracts, the possibility of companies resorting to outsourcing after dismissal, the replenishment of the individual time bank or the non-reinstatement of workers after unlawful dismissal.
