Lisbon, May 29, 2026 (Lusa) – Unions said the board of directors of Lusa, Portugal's national news agency, formally terminated the company's collective agreement, accusing management of wanting to impact salary negotiations, but the board said the process is necessary to modernise the agreement.
The Journalists' Union, Sitese (Services Sector Workers' Union) and Site CSRA (Manufacturing, Energy and Environmental Industries Workers' Union for the Centre-South and Autonomous Regions) said the Lusa board announced on Thursday that it "formally terminated the current collective agreement and proposed negotiating a new one, conditioning future salary increases on signing a new agreement."
The unions said in the statement that "through a management act, the board confirmed the government's decision to proceed with a salary increase of €56.58 a month in 2026, retroactive to 1 January," paid this Friday.
"The board said it was willing to make a salary increase of €70 in 2026 (that is, €13.42 above the €56.58 currently processed), but this additional increase depends on signing the new collective agreement, which could take several years to negotiate given the process's great complexity, as it involves several structural and difficult-to-negotiate labour matters," they said.
The Lusa board confirmed in another statement that it presented "a new collective agreement to replace the current one, which management considers outdated and whose drafting began in 2006, entering into force in 2009," and shared the information with the workers' committee in another meeting.
The board said that "among the measures provided for in the document, which is now entering the negotiation phase, is an annual increase of €70 or 3.2%, when more advantageous to the worker, over the next four years. The document also proposes increasing the transport allowance to the equivalent value of the family travel pass (€80)."
The unions said the board "expressly assumed" that "there will only be an increase of €70 in 2026 or another value resulting from negotiations if and when there is an agreement regarding the new collective agreement."
"By linking Lusa to the increases of the State-owned enterprise sector and terminating the collective agreement (when it could start negotiations for a new collective agreement without terminating the current one), the board exercises unacceptable blackmail on workers," they said.
Unions said that "this strategy aims to condition increases on changes to the collective agreement that could last for years, pretending to negotiate a list of demands when, after all, it applies the minimum update without ever informing the unions or conducting any negotiations."
The board, in turn, said Lusa was a "publicly funded news agency, so rigour in managing its resources is imperative," adding that the "objective of this proposal for a new collective agreement is to empower the agency's resources" facing current and future challenges through a more structural solution instead of haphazard measures.
The board said that "the measures now proposed intend to provide the company with a greater capacity to attract new talent, greater retention and training of human resources, and also greater recognition of professional merit," pointing out that "a regular evaluation policy, with bonus distribution, reflecting an attractive and compensatory evolution, is an indispensable factor not adequately reflected in the current collective agreement."
The unions said that management promised a "good proposal" and the cabinet office minister spoke of a "historic valuation", but "what is now happening is only the minimum salary update defined by the government in January 2026 and the termination of the collective agreement, conditioning two distinct negotiation levels."
The union structures consider that "the company could have started the collective agreement review without terminating it, but chose not to do so."
The board stated that "as a consequence, and without prejudice to openness to the negotiation process, terminating the collective agreement becomes necessary, allowing the revision of agreed rules and the adoption of solutions compatible with job preservation, while simultaneously ensuring the development of new skills and the company's capacity to face current market challenges."
The board also mentioned the €5 million investment "which the government recently approved for Lusa within the scope of the share capital increase", which "aims at technological modernisation and the enhancement" of human resources, allowing the agency to reinforce its national and international presence.
The board added that "given the rising cost of living and inflation outlook, Lusa workers will receive €56.58 or 2.15% in May 2026, retroactive to January, without having to wait for the end of the negotiation process that now begins."
ALN/LYT // ADB.
Lusa
