BE wants the four-day workweek project to be extended to more companies, increase the number of holiday days per year to 25 and create a new holiday for parents with children under eight.
These three proposals were presented this morning by BE coordinator Mariana Mortagua at a press conference in the Assembly of the Republic, where the embargoer called on other parties to endorse initiatives aimed at reducing working hours in a country where there are “long working hours and low wages.”
Mariana Mortagua began by declaring that the results of the first meeting of social consultations with the participation of Prime Minister Luis Montenegro, held on Tuesday, “represent a negligible amount.”
“Empty commitments about the supposed revision of the income agreement without any commitments on working hours, labor regulation, improving working conditions, increasing wages,” criticized Mariana Mortagua.
The blocker believed that “the minority PSD/SDS-PP government cannot offer any way” to solve the problem of Portugal’s excessive workload and low wages, putting forward a package of proposals.
From BE’s perspective, the country is already “producing enough to reduce working hours”, proposing to extend the four-day work period and create the IEFP “a permanent mechanism to support companies increasingly adopting this model of work, which is desired by both companies and workers.”
The blocking parliamentary group also wants to create a new leave of five days a year “without any justification or certificate” for parents with children under eight years of age and restore the 25 days of annual leave abolished by the “intervention”. “threes”
In addition, BE proposes to fire workers on their birthday without loss of wages. This practice has already been adopted by some companies, but blockers want it to be extended to all public sector companies.
BE will schedule a debate on these projects on May 22, along with its projects aimed at combating the housing crisis, given that these are two issues that are part of the same problem: “those who do not have time to live and those who who has nowhere to live, no decent life, no good life.”
“Work cannot be a prison. And it has been more than proven that increasing working hours does not mean increasing production or greater productivity. In the 21st century, we cannot have working hours like in the 20th or 19th centuries,” he said.
The BE Coordinator was also asked about the announcement that Chega would propose to Parliament that a criminal case be opened against the President of the Republic for betraying the country and the Constitution following claims of possible reparations to former colonies.
“I think Parliament could devote itself to discussing the reduction of working hours for all people who do not have time to live, and the right to housing. These are issues that concern and concern people. The rest is nonsense without a name, and it was important that the Assembly The Republic did not get confused in such actions and could focus on the most important thing,” he replied.