Lisbon, April 9, 2026 (Lusa) – The National Secretariat of the UGT (Socialist-backed General Workers' Union) rejected on Thursday the government’s current proposal to amend labour legislation, calling for negotiations to continue.
In a resolution approved unanimously on Thursday, the UGT's highest executive body said there had been insufficient progress in negotiations and that the current proposal did not yet allow for consensus.
The trade union confederation, led by Mário Mourão, emphasised that this position would be formally communicated at the plenary meeting of the social conciliation (an ongoing tripartite dialogue between the government, employers’ organisations and trade union confederations), where the next phase of the negotiating process is expected to take place.
“The UGT National Secretariat hopes that the progress and the work of social dialogue will not be undermined”, he said.
In a statement defending "Work XXI with rights," the confederation and its associates appealed for further talks, saying they would continue to push for fairer, more inclusive labour laws that address current and future workplace challenges while strengthening collective bargaining and trade unions.
In a statement, the UGT identified nine primary points preventing an agreement, including extending the duration and grounds for fixed-term contracts, removing the reinstatement guarantee following unlawful dismissal, restoring individual hour banks, and allowing regrading with a loss of pay.
Furthermore, they highlighted the non-application of collective agreements to outsourced workers, the elimination of arbitration mechanisms, the facilitation of the expiry of collective agreements, the expansion of minimum services during strikes, and restrictions on union activity within companies.
The UGT said that despite eight months of committed participation, the proposal still contained "unacceptable" options.
On the other hand, they point out that structural proposals from the UGT, such as reducing working hours, strengthening the principle of more favourable treatment, increasing redundancy pay, improving the remuneration for overtime and night work, and restoring compensatory rest, remained unaddressed.
The UGT further advocated increasing the minimum wage and introducing joint liability in outsourcing, calling for tougher penalties for non-compliance and a reduction in the costs of accessing the justice system.
“The UGT has never hesitated to enter the negotiation process, has never left it, and has always been and will always be on the side of social dialogue, as is widely recognised.
In good times and bad, defending workers and contributing to the country’s development," the resolution further said, emphasising that the negotiation process “has not progressed as expected."
On Monday, after a meeting with the UGT and the four business confederations, the labour minister, Rosário Palma Ramalho, said that the time had come for social partners to consult their respective bodies on the proposed amendments to labour law and that a plenary meeting of social conciliation would be scheduled “shortly”.
The government would serenely await their final decisions, she added.
In recent months, the government has opted to hold meetings exclusively with the UGT and the four main business confederations, excluding the CGTP (Communist Party-backed General Confederation of Portuguese Workers), saying that the trade union confederation had effectively sidelined itself from the negotiations and demanding the total withdrawal of the proposal.
The government introduced in July 2025 the initial version of the "Work XXI" draft bill as a “far-reaching reform of labour law”, featuring more than 100 proposed amendments to the Labour Code, facing criticism from trade union representatives, which ultimately led to a joint general strike by the CGTP and UGT on 11 December 2025.
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