Welcome to the Official page of the Presidency of the Portuguese Republic

1. The President of the Republic enacted today, as law, the Parliamentary bill that alters the Labour Code for the third time.

2. The changes to the Labour legislation carried out in this bill derive from the Memorandum of Understanding with the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, subscribed by the Portuguese Government following the request for financial aid placed by Portugal in April 2011.

3. The framework and the guiding principles of the legislation under review derive equally from the Commitment for Growth, Competitiveness and Employment agreed on 18 January ultimo between the Portuguese Government and a large majority of the social partners members of the Standing Committee of Social Collaboration of the Economic and Social Council.

4. This bill was approved in Parliament with the favourable votes of the Social Democrat Party and of the CDS – Popular Party, with Socialist Members of Parliament abstaining and others (15%) voting against.

5. In the analysis carried out by the Civil Department of the Presidency of the Republic, no clear indications of unconstitutionality were apparent that would justify the intervention of the Constitutional Court for preventive monitoring of the law’s constitutionality.

6. As such, the judgement of the President of the Republic concerning the law under appreciation considered the commitments assumed by Portugal with the international institutions, the need to preserve the consensus reached in the Standing Committee of Social Collaboration and the reduced opposition that this bill obtained with the political parties represented in Parliament.

7. With the coming into force of this reform in labour legislation, the stability of the precepts regulating labour relations, aiming towards the recovery of investment, towards the creation of employment and to the sustainable re-launching of the Portuguese economy, should from now on be assured.