PUBLIC SERVANT
| PORTUGAL |
| FUNCIONÁRIO PÚBLICO PUBLIC SERVANT |
Employee who is appointed to "exercise, by way of an occupation, functions specific to the public service which are permanent in nature" (Article 6(2) of Decree-Law No. 184 of June 2, 1989 and Article 4(1,5) of Decree-Law No. 427 of December 7, 1989). The particularly notable characteristic of public servants in this strict sense is the statutory nature of their employment relationship, together with stability of tenure and the opportunity of advancement in the form of a defined career. A public servant is, by definition, integrated into the body of employees within which this career is mapped out. The law distinguishes between vertical careers (in which upward advancement involves, simultaneously, both functions of increasing complexity and increasing levels of pay) and horizontal careers (where progression is purely in terms of pay increments). Pay levels (and subsequent increments) are laid down (like all other conditions of service) by normative act (which must be preceded, in the case of pay determination, by negotiation with the unions).
Please note: the European industrial relations glossaries were compiled between 1991 and 2003 and are not updated. For current material see the European industrial relations dictionary.