Lisbon, Feb. 23, 2026 (Lusa) - The president of CIP, Armindo Monteiro, said on Monday that the government's proposal to revise labour law is "balanced" and that there is no "change so significant as to warrant all this conflict".
"It is a balanced proposal," said the president of CIP - Confederação Empresarial de Portugal (Portuguese Business Confederation), in statements to journalists at the entrance to the meeting between the Government, UGT and business confederations at the Ministry of Labour, Solidarity and Social Security in Lisbon.
Armindo Monteiro reiterated that the proposal can be improved and that the CIP is open to negotiation. "This is not a game of wins and losses," he stressed, emphasising that they are not "seeking such a significant change that it necessitates all this conflict".
With regard to the repeal of the rule that provides for restrictions on outsourcing in the event of dismissal proposed by the Government and considered one of the red lines for the UGT, the CIP president calls for "not ending [...] an instrument of competitiveness," but stresses that they are open to regulating the measure if there is "any aspect that requires greater caution."
Nevertheless, the CIP stresses that it is not willing to make an "innocuous change" to labour law.
"If we are playing around with changes, then there is no point in keeping the country in suspense only for everything to end up so round that nothing has changed. In that case, it would have been preferable not to have started this process," he said.
Armindo Monteiro therefore advocates an agreement within the Social Dialogue, through "dialogue between workers' representatives and employers' representatives".
The CIP president also fears that if the process goes to parliament without prior agreement in the Social Dialogue, "it may be captured by more electoral interests of party politics", which, for Armindo Monteiro, "is legitimate" but "does not make sense".
"The labour relationship is too serious not to be discussed with those who are most directly involved," he added, calling for an “effort” to "find this balance".
Asked about the fact that the CGTP had not been invited to this meeting, which is the result of the technical meetings that have taken place, Armindo Monteiro stated that this is "a preparatory meeting for the plenary meeting" of Social Dialogue and indicated that the “criterion” was to bring together "the partners who were willing to reach an agreement".
At the meeting's entrance, the UGT secretary-general, Mário Mourão, said only that he hoped the meeting would be brief.
Last Wednesday, the Minister of Labour had called the UGT and the employers' confederations to a meeting, but the meeting ended up being held without the presence of union representatives: the CGTP was not summoned by the Government and the UGT announced that it would not participate in the meeting, considering it "untimely" and regretting its disclosure when it informed the Government in good time of its unavailability on that date.
An official source from the ministry told Lusa that "the UGT was invited and did not show any availability at any time this week", but that "the Government remains fully available to talk" with the trade union.
In view of the UGT's absence, at the end of the meeting, the business confederations indicated that they were "interested" in reaching an agreement on the labour law, so without the presence of the trade union confederation "in practice there was no meeting" and they showed themselves willing to negotiate with the trade union confederation starting this week.
JMF/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
