The Minister of Labour, Solidarity and Social Security declared on Sunday that the Government rejects going back to “square one” in the reform of labor laws, showing openness to contributions from the UGT, with which it meets on Tuesday.
In an interview with RTP Madeira, Rosário Ramalho also admitted the “economic” and “social” impacts of Thursday’s general strike, although saying that “the official numbers” of workers’ adherence to the strike “do not correspond, in any way, to the numbers that the union centrals put forward”.
“The Government, obviously, is not willing to go back to square one because it presented this preliminary project legitimized by the electoral program, the Government program and even the tripartite agreement it signed last year with the Social Concertation, including with the UGT [União Geral de Trabalhadores]and which predicted that we would review labor legislation”, he said.
The person responsible for guardianship argued that “a set of very significant changes” is at stake and that, therefore, “it is never possible, technically, to start from square one”.
“Someone has to take the initiative. In this case, it was the Government, which presented it as a preliminary project and that is what is being debated, but with complete openness”, he continued.
According to Rosário Ramalho, the draft is “a working basis and not a finished thing”, since “it could have been a bill, therefore”, in other words, it is a document to “build solutions and the solutions are halfway there”.
“We will have to carry out a process of rapprochement between the parties, but it has to be on both sides. The Government presented several proposals on the first – this preliminary project. The UGT, until now, has not yet presented proposals, but has studied ours”, he described.
The member of the Government led by the social democrat Luís Montenegro stated that the executive “never” interrupted the negotiations and that it was the UGT, “when deciding to declare the strike [-geral]” to, “naturally”, cause the suspension of meetings.
“We actually have numbers – and these numbers are official – which do not correspond, in any way, to the numbers that the trade unions put forward. But they also advanced [com os números da adesão dos trabalhadores à greve-geral]very early, first thing in the morning”, he explained.
For the Minister of Labor, the data “points to a strike[-geral] which had very little expression in the private sector, therefore, at the level of companies” and which “had more expression in the public sector”.
“But, regardless of the numbers, obviously a general strike always has a big impact. Not only because the sectors where, in fact, there were more supporters are sectors that harm, that impact more on the economy – for example, if the school closes, there is not only the problem of the school, but also the problem of the parents who have to stay with their children”, he declared.
Rosário Ramalho admitted that “the economic impact is greater than the number of adhesions because it is a general strike” and that, “on the other hand, there is also a social impact”, reiterating that “the Government has always considered this strike[-geral] inopportune because negotiations are ongoing, but he still respected it”.
On Thursday, a general strike took place, the first called in Portugal by the General Confederation of Portuguese Workers/Intersindical (CGTP/IN) and UGT, together, for 12 years, and affected sectors such as transport, schools, hospitals and health centers, among other private companies such as AutoEuropa.