This Tuesday, the Minister of Labor refused to allow Brussels to propose privatizing pensions and considered that it is unreasonable for women to take breastfeeding leave, working one week less per month to earn the same, “without time limit”.
During the period of requests for clarification after the intervention of minister Rosário Palma Ramalho, the PS deputy Miguel Cabrita defended that the Government should move forward with a permanent increase in pensions, instead of granting bonusesand asked for clarification of the executive’s position in relation to the European Commission’s alleged intention to condition access to European funds to changes in pensions.
“The European Commission wants to reserve access to the next European funds for countries that carry out pension reforms in order to privatize parts of the systems. In an area of exclusive competence of the Member States, it is interference, but it is also a systemic risk for the pensions of all of us”, said the deputy.
BE deputy Mariana Mortágua questioned the same matter, asking the Minister of Labour, Solidarity and Social Security if the Government plans to “use part of the Portuguese pensions to feed speculative markets, financial markets and the armaments industry”.
In the replica, Rosário Palma Ramalho said, without specifying, that the European Commission made a recommendation and guaranteed that there was “nothing related to the privatization” of the pension system.
Regarding the increase in reforms, the Minister said that Government estimates indicate that, in the worst case scenario, the lowest pensions will increase above inflation by 0.5% in 2026, according to the update formula.
Rosário Palma Ramalho assured that the Government will increase pensions according to the law’s formula, but highlighted that the final calculation of the update depends on data on GDP and inflation that are not closed.
“What we can say at this point are estimates about the increase: at best estimates, pensions up to 2 IAS [Indexante dos Apoios Sociais] will increase above inflation and those fixed between 2 IAS and 6 IAS will be neutral”.
Isabel Mendes Lopes, parliamentary leader of Livreaccused the Government of, with the new labor package, wanting to “further unbalance the labor market, facilitate dismissals, weaken workers’ power, encourage precariousness and increase inequality” and questioned the minister about the reasons why she “attacks women’s right to breastfeed” instead of discussing the increase in parental leave.
On this matter, the minister rejected any attack on women and the right to breastfeeding, defending “a calibration” as she considers that the current regime “is not reasonable”.
“Without a time limit, a worker under this Statute works six hours a day and receives eight, (…) minus one week per month and receives the entire month. And maintaining this unlimitedly is not reasonable, not even from the point of view of breastfeeding itself. That’s what we’re talking about and not any attack”, he argued, adding that Portugal “has the second most favorable regime in Europe”, only behind Italy.
The government proposes, in the new labor package, that time off work be limited for breastfeeding until the child is two years old.
After Ricardo Cardoso, from Chega, criticized the expenditure foreseen in the OE for social insertion income (RSI) and defended the cut of social support to those who “show signs of wealth”, the minister said that there is a “very vigorous program to combat fraud in Social Security” against cases of grants being granted without justification.
Socialist Elza Pais also criticized an OE “empty of humanist policies”, adding that it is an “insensitive document that does not care about people, that does not respond to women’s rights”.
