The issue of reducing working hours gained new momentum with the delivery of a strategic document to the Government that aims to amend the Labor Code. The possibility of reducing the working week to four days, while keeping remuneration intact, is now formally on the negotiating table, but its application will not be universal or automatic for all sectors. This legislative change is designed as a specific right focused on reconciling personal and family life for very specific groups of the working population.
The information is provided by the newspaper Expresso, which had exclusive access to the counter-proposal presented by UGT to the Minister of Labor. The document, entitled “Work with Rights XII”, defines that this reduction in hours must be an actionable option for those who meet certain family or health requirements.
According to the union central’s proposal, the measure is primarily aimed at workers with children up to 12 years of age or who are responsible for grandchildren in the same age group. The document also extends this right to anyone suffering from a chronic, oncological illness or disability, regardless of age, as well as to workers with student worker status.
Access conditions and workload
The intention of the union structure is to ensure that this adjustment to the working week does not imply any loss of monthly pay for the employee. Furthermore, the document highlights that the adoption of a four-day week cannot result in an increase in the normal daily working period to compensate for hours of absence.
The same source indicates that, in addition to this specific measure, the UGT proposes a transversal reduction of the working week to 35 hours. This is one of around 80 changes to labor standards that the union center wants to see discussed to correct what it considers to be imbalances in the Government’s initial proposal.
The objective of these measures is to respond to the challenges of future work and ensure more effective protection of workers’ private lives. The proposal appears as a direct response to the executive’s legislative draft, considered unbalanced by worker representatives.
More vacations and compensation
Another significant change concerns the duration of the annual rest period, with the law requiring 25 working days of vacation to be set. The proposal defines that this should be the basic rule, although it allows a reduction of three days if there are unjustified absences on the part of the worker.
The aforementioned source explains that the UGT also intends to reverse the cuts in redundancy compensation applied during the troika period. The suggestion involves increasing the amounts to one month’s remuneration for each year of work, with a minimum amount equivalent to three months’ salary.
Red lines in trading
Negotiations between the social partners and the Government promise to be tense, as there are issues considered unacceptable by the union structure. The individual time bank, which the Government intended to recover, was completely excluded from the counter-proposal submitted to the guardianship.
The UGT limits itself to accepting changes to the group time bank, proposing that this flexibility mechanism can only be activated under strict conditions. To do so, approval would be required through an internal referendum, with the favorable vote of at least 60 percent of the workers covered by the measure.
Strengthening supervision and protection
The document delivered to Minister Rosário Palma Ramalho also provides for a substantial reinforcement of the powers of the Working Conditions Authority. The idea is to allow this entity to stop dismissals whenever there is strong evidence of illegality in the employer’s decision.
It also explains what the proposal advocates for greater intervention by the Commission for Equality in Labor and Employment in sensitive cases. The issuance of a prior opinion would become mandatory in situations of dismissal of pregnant women, parents on leave or caregivers, as well as when refusing flexible working hours.
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