Portugal's new labour laws must be scrutinised

The parliament in Portugal passed a battery of changes to the country's labour laws in May. Among other things they include a reduction in severance payments and more flexible working hours. The daily Diário de Notícias calls on the Constitutional Court to subject the new legislation to intense scrutiny: "The repeated request for this third amendment to the labour laws to be reviewed regarding its compatibility with the constitution is absolutely justified. Since these are definitive changes that will affect thousands of workers and fundamentally change their rights there must be no doubt that they are in accordance with the constitution. … It was a political decision that not the president called for a repeated review (he passed the new labour legislation last week) but the leftist parties in parliament [who are most critical of the legislation]. That the initiative comes from the left-wing parties makes it possible that the trade unions will discover that concessions were indeed made to employers, but they were in accordance with the constitution. This could be the deciding factor in the expected appeals against this legislation."

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