Labor package “is the normalization of precariousness for life”

Predictably, Tiago Oliveira, general secretary of , and Rafael Rocha, general director of do not have the same position regarding the draft law reforming labor legislation. The trade unionist guarantees that it is a setback for the working class, while the CIP representative argues that there are very positive points.

Rafael Rocha begins by “demystifying” an issue. In his opinion, “there doesn’t have to be confrontation” between the two organizations.

“There is no confrontation. There are no companies without workers and there are no workers without companies”, he assures.

The leader of the CIP guarantees that the body he oversees “never had red lines” and that he has always “expressed total openness” to negotiate with the unions the package laboral presentation presented by the Government.

He also points out that one measure, out of the 100 developed, that he considers beneficial for workers is the individual time bank:

“The individual time bank gives the worker complete freedom to decide, together with his employer, the ‘timings’ in which he can or cannot work, reconcile his personal life with his professional life, take the child to school, take the child to the doctor.”

Tiago Oliveira doesn’t agree and says:

“What Rafael Rocha is saying, everyone listening to us at home knows perfectly well that this is not what happens […]. The individual time bank is remitted to an individual sphere of the worker direct negotiation with the company. That’s why the CIP and Rafael Rocha are there saying that there was a group and companies and bosses don’t want the group, they want the individual. Why? Because the group was the subject of a referendum in the company. And it was fought. The workers rejected, because they were in a collective, in unity, they rejected the group in the companies.”

To the general secretary of the union the individual time bank forces the worker to confront “directly with the employer in an imbalance that everyone knows that 99% of the time it leads to.”

He also argues, on a collision course with the leader of the CIP, that, in the “overwhelming majority of cases, it is not the worker who decides when to enjoy these hours.”

For Tiago Oliveira, time banking is nothing more than working more without receiving anything for it.

“Normalization of precariousness for the entire life”

The CGTP secretary general guarantees that there are no measures in this draft law that are negative for employers.

For workers, “it is the normalization of precariousness for the entire life”.

Asked about a possible return to the negotiating table with the Government, the union leader is adamant: “No, on the contrary.”

Rafael Rocha intervenes again, saying that the general strike “should be a last resort for workers when there is no end in sight for negotiations.”

“If in Spain, our neighbor, it is possible to reach these understandings, if Portugal is known as a country with mild customs, then we cannot understand each other around a negotiating table to have labor legislation for the 21st century that allows for better and more jobs, better wages, more productivity.”

Finally, he launches the challenge to CGTP:

“I launch again the challenge that was made several times to Tiago so that we can reach this consensus, so that we can have a more developed economy, which builds more wealth.”