Union resistance to Portugal’s labour law reforms blocks progress

Portugal’s government says that one of the country’s largest unions, the CGTP has abandoned negotiations over a controversial labour reform.

Portugal’s recent labour reforms, proposed in mid-2025 and expected in 2026, aim to modernise labour laws to boost competitiveness and digital work, focusing on greater flexibility.

Key changes including extending remote working rights, changes to parental leave (such as a 100% allowance for equal sharing), reducing trial periods, new rules for temporary contracts, and measures affecting the right to strike and changes for online workers.

The government says it is modernising the laws so that they are fit-for-purpose for a digital economy, but the unions says it is a backwards step that will reduce job security.

The Minister of Labour, Rosário Palma Ramalho, said on Tuesday had withdrawn from negotiations unlike the country’s other main union, the UGT which was still at the table.

“The right to demonstrate is a fundamental one which any body, including the CGTP, can exercise”, said the minister, adding that she didn’t really know what the CGTP wanted since “up until now it seems it doesn’t anything and has withdrawn from the negotiating table unlike the UGT”, she said.

However, she said that the government was available to hear what the CGTP had to say.

The CGTP called a demonstration on Tuesday with workers up and down the country demonstrating culminating in a petition handed to the government demanding that the new labour law be withdrawn.

The government’s labour reform, called “Work XXI”, was presented on July 24, 2025 by the Government and has already resulted in a ‘resounding no’ from the trade union, which argue that it is “an attack” on workers’ rights”.

Picture: Protesters against the government’s labour reforms in Lisbon on Tuesday, January 13, 2026.