Actors and institutions in Portugal

In Portugal, the Ministry of Labour, Solidarity, and Social Security (Ministério do Trabalho, Solidariedade e Segurança Social, MTSSS) approves and implements policies related to employment, vocational and qualification training, the labour market and industrial relations through the Directorate-General for Employment and Labour Relations (Direção-Geral do Emprego e das Relações de Trabalho, DGERT) and the Authority for Working Conditions (Autoridade para as Condições do Trabalho, ACT). DGERT is responsible for supporting the development of policies, legislation and regulations on employment and vocational training and on industrial relations, including working conditions and health, safety and well-being at work.

ACT is responsible for promoting improved working conditions by ensuring compliance with labour regulations and for promoting occupational risk prevention policies in public administration departments and bodies and in all sectors of activity.

Two other bodies are able to pursue inquiries in cases of occupational disease or other damage to health that occurred during work or that are related to work. The Social Security Institute (Instituto da Segurança Social), through the Protection against Occupational Risks Department (Departamento de Proteção Contra os Riscos Profissionais), is responsible for managing the treatment of and recovery from an illness or disability arising from occupational hazards. The Directorate-General of Health (Direção-Geral da Saúde, DGS) is one of the main stakeholders in the definition, promotion and enforcement of occupational health policy, through its Environmental and Occupational Health Division (Divisão de Saúde Ambiental e Ocupacional). The DGS is responsible for promoting the assessment of the relationships between work and health/ill health and evaluating the impact of work on health (disability and death). It is also responsible for supporting the development of policies, legislation, regulations, guidelines, and so on, on health surveillance.

Portuguese legislation does not provide rules regarding criteria for and mechanisms to assess the representativeness of trade unions and employer associations or regarding the implications of representativeness in social dialogue institutions and collective bargaining. All officially registered unions or employer associations are entitled to engage in collective bargaining. The critical aspect of collective bargaining in Portugal is mutual recognition.

The MoU (implemented in the period between May 2011 and May 2014) required that the extension of collective agreements should be based on representativeness, both of trade unions and of employer associations. The legal changes made by the centre right coalition PSD/CDS in 2012 and 2014 referred only to employer representativeness/representation. In the 2012 version, employers had to represent 50% of employment in the sector, which in many sectors is an impossible target. In the 2014 version, 30% of their membership had to be made up of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises for them to be allowed to extend the collective agreements.

These rules were withdrawn in 2017 for a number of reasons: the negative impact in collective bargaining as a result of reducing the number of extensions and the number of updated collective agreements, as well as their coverage; the weakness of employer associations as highlighted by the green paper on labour relations of 2016 (Dray, 2017), with only 19% of companies in Portugal in 2014 claiming to be affiliated to employer associations; and the fact that both employer confederations and trade union confederations were opposed to or reticent about the criteria for extension based on representativeness/representation. In May 2017, Resolution 82/2017 replaced the criteria of representativeness/representation of employer associations with new criteria for the extension of collective agreements: the effect on the wage bill and economic impacts, the level of the wage increase, the impact on the wage scale and on the reduction of inequality, the percentage of workers to be covered (in total and by gender) and the proportion of women that will benefit.

About trade union representation

The right to organise in a trade union (liberdade sindical) is guaranteed by the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic and by the Labour Code. Very few groups are excluded from this right, with only members of the armed forces and militarised security forces excluded.

Measuring trade union membership in Portugal is a particularly difficult task because most unions do not provide updated and accurate information. Since 2010, the annual mandatory survey for all companies in the market sector (Relatório Único; Ordinance 55/2010) has included a question for employers about the number of employees affiliated to trade unions. As highlighted in the green paper on labour relations of 2016, less than 4% of companies indicate that they have unionised workers, and the data on unionised workers point to a union density between 11% and 9% in 2010–2014. Furthermore, these data do not include the public sector, where trade union density is always much higher.

Published data (OECD, 2021) show that there was remarkable stability in union density in Portugal until 2011. According to this database, in 2011, the CGTP-IN comprised around 460,000 members, the UGT had around 193,000 members and independent unions comprised around 19,000 members and, in 2016 (the most recent data), the CGTP-IN comprised 400,000 members, the UGT had around 160,000 members and independent unions comprised 19,000 members. There is some discrepancy between these data and trade union confederations’ own assessments, in particular by the UGT. The CGTP-IN reported that it had lost almost 64,000 members between 2012 and 2016 (CGTP-IN, 2016), but that its membership had increased significantly in the following four years, namely by 132,541 (CGTP-IN, 2020; Porfírio, 2020; see also the CGTP-IN’s response to the questionnaire in Eurofound, 2014). The UGT reported that it had lost 20,000 members between 2012 and 2016 and 8,000 members between 2016 and 2010 (UGT, 2013, 2017; see also the UGT’s response to the questionnaire in Eurofound, 2014).

Trade union membership and density, 2011–2020

Notes: * Proportion of employees who are members of a trade union. ** Based on the annual mandatory survey sent to all companies in the market sector (Relatório Único), which includes a question for employers about the number of workers affiliated to trade unions at company level, which allows trade union density to be calculated (GEP/MTSSS, 2023, p. 17). *** Total number of trade (labour) union members (including self-employed workers and non-active union members, namely students, retirees or unemployed people) at national level. n.a., not available; OECD/AIAS ICTWSS, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development/Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies Institutional Characteristics of Trade Unions, Wage Setting, State Intervention and Social Pacts.

Main trade union confederations and federations

There are two trade union confederations (the CGTP-IN and the UGT) that have access to the body of tripartite social concertation at macro level (the CPCS).

Main trade union confederations and federations

During the past 20 years, the most comprehensive and profound restructuring among Portuguese unions was carried out by the Federation of Unions of Metal Chemical, Electric, Pharmaceutical, Paper, Printing, Energy and Mining Industries (Federação Intersindical das Indústrias Metalúrgicas, Químicas, Eléctricas, Farmacêutica, Celulose, Papel, Gráfica, Imprensa, Energia e Minas, FIEQUIMETAL). The process began in 1999 with the merger of the CGTP-IN’s metal and chemical and chemical workers’ federations and continued in 2007 with the integration of the electrical workers’ federation. In 2010, eight of FIEQUIMETAL’s member unions merged into four newly created regional unions covering several branches of manufacturing. In the same year, the national Union of Paper and Printing Workers (Sindicato dos Trabalhadores das Indústrias de Celulose, Papel, Gráfica e Imprensa) integrated itself into these four new organisations. FIEQUIMETAL now covers the following sectors: metal, chemical, electrical, pharmaceutical, paper and pulp, graphical, press, energy and mining.

Another important structuring process occurred in 2007 when the UGT’s three banking and two insurance unions created the National Union Federation of the Finance Sector (Federação Nacional do Sector Financeiro, FEBASE). During the same year, the CGTP-IN’s transport and communication unions founded the Union Federation of Transports and Communications (Federação dos Sindicatos de Transportes e Comunicações**,** FECTRANS). In contrast with FIEQUIMETAL, the creation of FEBASE and FECTRANS did not result in restructuring the member organisations.

About employer representation

The Constitution guarantees the right to organise voluntarily and protects against any coercion to affiliate in an association, while the Labour Code specifies this right for employer organisations.

As regards the legal status of interest associations, there is an important distinction between the employer organisations that are recognised as social partners, on the one hand, and pure trade associations, on the other.

The main employer organisations that are represented in the most important cross-sectoral national institution for social dialogue, the CPCS, are the Entrepreneurial Confederation of Portugal (Confederação Empresarial de Portugal, CIP), the Portuguese Commerce and Services Confederation (Confederação do Comércio e Serviços de Portugal, CCP), the Confederation of Farmers of Portugal (Confederação dos Agricultores de Portugal) and the Confederation of Portuguese Tourism (Confederação do Turismo Português).

CIP was founded in 1974 as a result of the merger of the Confederation of Portuguese Industry (also CIP) with two large national entrepreneurial associations: the Association of Portuguese Industry (Associação Industrial Portuguesa) and the Portuguese Business Association, Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Associação Empresarial de Portugal, Câmara de Comércio e Indústria, AEP). With this merger, CIP consolidated its leading role on the side of employers.

On 18 May 2021, the National Council of Employer Confederations (Conselho Nacional das Confederações Patronais) was created. This platform assembles not only the four employer confederations represented at the tripartite CPCS but also the Portuguese Confederation of Construction and Real Estate (Confederação Portuguesa da Construção e do Imobiliário). This platform has allowed increased coordination between employer confederations.

There are no published membership data regarding employer organisations. However, the annual mandatory survey sent to all companies in the market sector (Relatório Único) includes a question for employers about their affiliation with employer associations and their number of employees, which allows an estimate to be made of the overall employer organisation density in terms of the percentage of companies that are affiliated (19.3% in 2012 and 13.3% in 2020 in the private sector) and in terms of active employees (38.2% in 2012 and 34.5% in 2020) (GEP/MTSSS, 2023, p. 17).

Employer organisation membership and density, 2012–2020

Note: * Percentage of employees working in an establishment that is a member of any employer organisation that is involved in collective bargaining. n.a., not available.

Main employer organisations

There are two main employer confederations (CIP and the CCP) covering more than one sector that have access to the body of tripartite social concertation at macro level (the CPCS).

Main employer organisations and confederations

The tripartite body for social concertation at macro level is the CPCS. It was created in 1984 and has put in place several agreements on income policies, setting reference values for the wage increases in collective bargaining. In 1990 and 1996, broad pacts covering a wide range of areas were signed. These agreements were signed by only one trade union confederation, the UGT; the CGTP-IN did not sign any of them.

In 1991, the first specific agreements were signed at the CPCS: one on health and safety in the workplace and the other on vocational education and training. The final broad agreement was signed in 1996 (which was also the final agreement containing guidelines for wage bargaining), after which this new type of specific agreement became the dominant means of social concertation until 2008 (Almeida et al, 2016; Campos Lima and Abrantes, 2016).

In the final quarter of 2014, with the signature of a tripartite agreement on the minimum wage increase, tripartite concertation regained importance. In the new political cycle that followed from the end of 2015, the PS government signed three tripartite agreements in 2016, 2017 and 2018 covering various issues.

In June 2018, the tripartite agreement on combating precarious work and labour market segmentation and promoting greater dynamism in collective bargaining introduced proposals to reinforce arbitration before the expiry of agreements, to protect workers’ acquired rights in some domains when collective agreements expire (see ‘Expiry of collective agreements’) and to extend the range of issues to which the favor laboratoris principle applies. At the same time, the tripartite agreement introduced new challenges regarding collective agreements and workplace decision-making on working time flexibility. The tripartite agreements of 2017 and 2018 were not signed by the CGTP-IN. Among the reasons not to sign was the CGTP-IN’s demand for an in-depth revision of the legal framework of collective bargaining in order to fully re-establish the principle of favor laboratoris and to allow collective agreements to expire only following a joint decision of the signatory parties.

In July 2021, the tripartite agreement on vocational training and qualifications was signed, an agreement that was in line with the goals of Portugal’s recovery and resilience plan for 2030. It integrated measures to reach the European target of, by 2030, 60% of adults between the ages of 25 and 64 undertaking lifelong learning actions every year.

In October 2022, the tripartite medium-term agreement for improving income, wages and competitiveness was signed, which set out measures and guidelines on wage policy developments for 2023–2026. One of the main purposes of this agreement is to increase the wage share of GDP by at least three percentage points, reaching 48.3% by 2026, to converge with the EU average. It establishes a target of increasing the average nominal wage by 20% between 2022 and 2026, that is, an average nominal wage rise of 4.8% per year until the end of 2026. The agreement includes incentives for employers, such as a 50% increase in employer’s tax deductions in return for salary increases for companies complying with at least one of the following conditions: having signed or renewed collective agreements, having increased wages annually in line with the goals set out in the tripartite agreement or having reduced the difference between the top 10% (i.e. highest paid) and bottom 10% (i.e. lowest paid) of jobs. This agreement was signed by the government and all of the social partners represented by the CPCS apart from the CGTP-IN. This trade union confederation argued that the nominal wage increases set out in the agreement did not compensate for inflation (past and future) and was opposed to the fiscal bonus offered to employers (Eurofound, 2023).

Main tripartite and bipartite bodies

The rights of works councils (comissões de trabalhadores) and trade union organisations at company level are guaranteed by the Constitution and regulated by the Labour Code.

The competencies of works councils are largely limited to information and consultation. In 2009, it was made legally possible for unions to delegate their ability to sign collective agreements to works councils, and this was extended in 2012, but it has not been used in practice.

Unions have the exclusive right to sign legally binding collective agreements and to call for strikes. Union structures at company level (delegates or committees) are involved in collective bargaining if the trade union board wants to be. It is the board that makes the decisions in relation to the negotiations.

Data from the European Company Survey confirm the findings of a survey in the 1990s: the trade union delegates are the most numerous bodies (in terms of establishments and employees covered).

The amendment of the Labour Code concerning telework (Law 83/2021, Article 169) includes the right of teleworkers to access information provided by worker representative structures. It specifies the following rights: the right to participate in person in meetings taking place at the company called by unions or works councils, the right to be integrated in the number of employees of the company for all purposes relating to collective representation structures and to be a candidate for these structures, and the right to use information and communication technologies in his or her work to participate in meetings promoted by worker representatives. On the other hand, worker representative structures may use the technologies referred to communicate with teleworkers, and they have the right to post notices, communications, information or other text relating to union life and the socio-professional interests of workers, as well as to distribute such information via email to all teleworkers, based on a list provided by the employer (Article 465(2)).

Regulation, composition and competencies of the bodies