“When there is a strike that affects vital social sectors, trade unions and workers are legally obliged to guarantee minimum services, and therefore, that is what we expect to happen. If there is this guarantee, as, I repeat, we expect it to happen, this issue will not even be on the table,” Maria do Rosário Palma Ramalho told the Lusa news agency.

According to the minister, “those most affected” by the general strike on December 11 are “people, workers, families, children, and those who need to go to a medical appointment.”

“Serious”

The minister reiterated that the strike called by the CGTP and UGT unions is “particularly serious” and “inopportune” because the government was negotiating with social partners.

“Not on the part of the CGTP, which, from the very beginning, said it would not negotiate, but the UGT has always been a negotiating partner and was negotiating. However, at the same time, it called the strike, which raises some perplexity,” she stated.

Saying that resorting to a strike is not out of the question, the minister assured that the government continues negotiations with social partners “in bilateral meetings,” which will continue after the general strike on December 11.

“The government is not standing still here, which is why it chose to present a preliminary draft, that is, a set of proposed solutions to build with social partners, civil society, and the contributions we have received from many areas, including companies and workers,” she added.

“When we chose this methodology during the preliminary drafting, it was precisely so that we could build upon and refine the proposals we put forward,” the minister emphasized, adding that “various meetings have been held in the social dialogue, both in plenary sessions and bilateral meetings, and there are proposed amendments on the table” that were under discussion.

The Minister of Labour, therefore, assures that “there is obviously room” to reach an understanding regarding the labour package.

“Inappropriate”

Regarding the CGTP's consideration of measures in the labour package as “pornographic,” Maria do Rosário Palma Ramalho began by saying that she dislikes that “qualifier,” which she described as “inappropriate.”

She added that the leaders of the trade union confederation “must not have read” the labour reform presented by the Government.

“The Labour XXI reform has a set of measures that profoundly reinforce the rights and guarantees of workers regarding parenthood, paternity leave, initial parental leave, holidays, various worker subsidies, and compensation for dismissals,” she exemplified.

The minister also denied that, with this reform, the Government is on the side of employers and not workers.

“The Government is not on anyone's side. The Government is on the side of the Portuguese people, and it is for them that it legislates, without ideological prejudices and in a technical way, because the issues we have on the table are of a technical nature”.