Portugal - Government wants to cut lay-off compensation - January 26, 2011

The government wants to cut the lay-off compensation that employers must pay to fire workers by one third, from 30 to 20 days’ wage per year, as part of its drive to boost the economy's competitiveness, Labour Minister Helena Andre announced on 25 January. She said the government also wants to limit compensation to a maximum of one year's salary. The proposals would apply only to new contracts, and would also include a fund financed by companies as to pay the compensations. Concerning the unions’ viewpoints, the CGTP federation has said it is against the proposals, but the UGP reacted to be available to negotiate the matter as long as the compensations are guaranteed by the new fund.

English: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/01/24/portugal-compensation ... via

http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/show_news.pl?country=Portugal

This article was published in the Collective Bargaining Newsletter. It aims to facilitate information exchange between trade unions and to support the work of ETUC's collective bargaining committee. For more information, please contact the editor Maarten van Klaveren, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) M.vanKlaveren@uva.nl. You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net. © ETUI aisbl, Brussels 2011.