New statute for workers attending study courses in Portugal

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A new statute covering workers who attend study courses was published in November 1997 in the Diário da República (the Portuguese Official Gazette). Though it widens the eligibility of workers who can benefit and has been broadly welcomed, it does not go far enough for some organisations.

The statute regarding workers attending study courses, until recently governed by a law dating from 1981 (Law 26/81 of 21 August), had been the object of protest by organisations representing the workers involved. These bodies complained that it was not being observed either by employers or educational institutions, and made demands aimed at enhancing the rights of workers attending study courses.

The statute in force has now been amended by Law Nº 116/97 of 4 November 1997, which introduced a number of changes, including the following:

• widening the scope of the statute to include workers with less job security (to reflect the current labour market scenario), self-employed workers and those attending vocational training or postgraduate courses longer than six months in duration at either public or private institutions;

• exempting workers on study leave from the system of compulsory course-completion requirements;

• limiting the working week to no more than 40 hours; and

• the right to a special time off for exam periods.

In order to ensure that the statute is enforced, the Government is planning to set up a "special body or service" over the coming six months, which will deal with relevant issues.

The move has met the overall approval of the parliamentary committee for youth, that is, the groups in parliament belonging to the Socialist Party (Partido Socialista, PS), the Social Democratic Party (Partido Social Democrata, PSD) and the Portuguese Communist Party (Partido Comunista Português, PCP), which all had a hand in effecting the change.

However, a number of other proposed issues, still considered by some to be fundamental, have not been included. These include tax benefits for companies showing special concern for workers on study courses (proposed by the PSD) and provisions to promote access to university-level study (proposed by the PCP). The failure to include within the scope of the law short-term study leave for young people - such as vocational training of less than six months - and the problem of how to ensure that the law is efficiently enforced are further issues of concern (raised by the youth section of the PCP).

Other limitations have been pointed out by the representative of workers on study leave on the National Educational Council, who is also a board member of the National Federation of Working Student Associations (Federação Nacional das Associações de Trabalhadores Estudantes). One such limitation is the fact that the type of documentation to prove that a worker is also a student has not been clarified, nor has the manner in which the law is to be enforced in enterprises and educational institutions.