Jobs under threat as government addresses deficit

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In May 2002, Portugal's new government announced a number of measures to address the mounting public deficit, including restructuring, a freeze on public service recruitment, the non-renewal of fixed-term contracts and possible greater mobility for civil servants. Trade unions, which believe that 50,000 jobs may be under threat, are seeking negotiations, while organising protests and threatening legal action.

Since it came to office in March 2002, Portugal's new coalition government of the centre-right Social Democrat Party (Partido Social Democrata PPD/PSD) and the right-wing People's Party (Partido Popular, CDS/PP) has taken a number of measures to combat the country's mounting budget deficit (PT0205101N), including: an 'amending budget'; a cabinet resolution (No. 97/2002) on the public service; the restructuring of various public bodies; and the announcement that public service recruitment will be frozen and many fixed-term contracts will not be renewed. Trade unions calculate that these measures will result in about 50,000 workers losing their jobs. The government also proposes that increased mobility should be required of civil servants, while the Minister of Finance has announced the absolute necessity of pay restraint in public employment.

The non-renewal of fixed-term contracts will affect many public service workers in various occupations and at various qualification levels, especially in the health and care sectors, educational and social security administration and local government.

The three main public service trade union organisations are the Common Front (Frente Comum) of civil service unions affiliated to the General Confederation of Portuguese Workers (Confederação Geral de Trabalhadores Portugueses, CGTP), and the Federation of Public Service Unions (Federação dos Sindicatos da Função Pública, FESAP) and State Technical Staff Union (Sindicato dos Quadros Técnicos da Função Pública, STE) - both General Workers' Union (União Geral de Trabalhadores, UGT) affiliates. The unions have stated that the situation caused by non-renewal of contracts is most serious in the health sector, where roughly 30,000 fixed-term contract workers keep the hospitals going. The unions claim that fixed-term workers in the public service are doing jobs that meet permanent needs and, taking into account developments in the private sector (PT0205102F), they should now receive open-ended contracts as established public service employees. Some workers have been on 'administrative supply contracts' for seven years or more – a form of employment that was especially created for the public services. The Minister of Health has given regional administrations the task of examining the renewal of fixed-term contracts in the healthcare sector, on the basis of a painstaking analysis of real human resource requirements.

The unions also state that the new government's programme and its amending budget have opened the way for the privatisation of certain local and central administration services and this may put the quality of local authorities' operations at risk.

Some public sector unions, in particular the UGT-affiliated National Federation of Education Unions (Federação Nacional dos Sindicatos da Educação, FNE), are willing to negotiate worker mobility in the event of restructuring, on the basis of the legislation being formulated on this point and an earlier decree-law on the issue (535/99). Meanwhile, they do not accept the identification of any supernumerary posts, or any pay losses or reductions.

CGTP and UGT have called for negotiations over the government's plans on public service employment and worker mobility, and have held a meeting with the Prime Minister. At the same time, the three main public service unions have threatened appeals to the Constitutional Court (Tribunal Constitucional), other courts and the Ombudsman (Provedor de Justiça), and announced strikes and demonstrations. CGTP was due to hold a demonstration in front of the Ministry of Finance on 7 June, to demonstrate national support for civil servants.