Companies that make collective redundancies cannot rely on outsourcing for a year

Delegates in the specialty approved an amendment to the labor code that would prevent companies from resorting to “outsourcing” (outside contracting) in the 12 months following collective redundancies or layoffs for job loss.

The government proposal was approved with the positive votes of the PS, PCP and BE and the negative votes of the PSD in the working group of the Commission for Work, Social Security and Inclusion on changes in the labor market in the context of the Decent Work Agenda.

“It is not permitted to use third party external services to meet needs that were secured by an employee whose contract has ended within the past 12 months due to collective redundancies or dismissal due to job extinction” , states the proposal.

According to the initiative, breach of the standard “constitutes a very serious administrative offense attributable to the beneficiary of the acquisition of services”.

PSD deputy Nuno Carvalho said that despite seeing “the principle” of the standard as “positive”, the party voted against it, understanding that the standard should not be applied transversally to all companies, but rather companies in trouble should bring a “special attention”.

Alfredo Maia, from the PCP, and Paula Bernardo, from the PS, responded that there are already tools in the law for companies in difficulty that they can use.

For his part, BE representative José Soeiro stressed that subcontracting has been used in recent years by large companies to pressure employees to leave, and later fill vacancies using ‘outsourcing’, making employees insecure.

The government’s proposal to amend labor legislation, as part of the Agenda for Decent Work, entered parliament in June without the consent of the Social Concert, after it was generally approved on July 8 with favorable votes from the PS, abstaining from the PSD , Enough, BE, PAN and Livre and against IL and PCP.

The start of the discussion in the specialty began on November 29, with the entry into force of the new labor rules scheduled for the beginning of this year.