The bosses left this Tuesday’s meeting with the Prime Minister, António Costa, and the Minister of Labor, Ana Mendes Godinho, with a handful of nothing. The changes in labor law that are so challenged by the employers’ federations, such as the prohibition for employees to give up wage credits or outsourcing for a year after a dismissal, remain unchanged. And there will be no new compensatory measures for companies.
At the end of the meeting, Labor Minister Ana Mendes Godinho promised to clarify only the tax benefit, in terms of IRC, for companies that increase wages by at least 5.1%: “By the end of the week, the ministry will van Arbeid hopes to get this clarification together with the Ministry of Finance, so that companies can clear their doubts and make their decisions with this information.”
The measure, which was approved in the context of the 2023 national budget, does not require any additional regulation, the minister assured. According to article 251 of the diploma, companies will be able to deduct from the taxable profit for 2023, in terms of IRC, an additional percentage of employees’ payroll costs that will be increased by at least 5.1%. The incentive will apply to fiscal year 2023, i.e. it will have an impact when companies file the IRC declaration in 2024 regarding the previous year’s results.
The income agreement, signed by the employers’ federations, details the measure and the access criteria: companies that cumulatively increase wages by at least 5.1% between 2022 and 2023, reduce wage differentials and have a collective bargaining dynamic are entitled to increase by 50% the costs with wage increase (wages and social charges), in terms of IRC.
The Labor Minister also guaranteed the government’s commitment to “accelerate the implementation of the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR) and PT2030”, two other concerns signaled by employers’ federations.
As for stopping the companies’ contribution to the Workers’ Compensation Fund (FCT), a requirement of the employers foreseen in the income agreement, Ana Mendes Godinho revealed that this will only happen when the new Labor Code enters into force, i.e. , early April.
Since 2013, companies withhold 0.925% of their employee wages for the FCT, which serves to pay severance payments. At the time, this mechanism was created in return for reducing the compensation for termination of employment from 30 to 12 days of seniority.
The amendments adopted by parliament, which were included in the social dialogue agreement, stipulate that the payment of severance pay will now be increased from 12 to 14 days per year worked, in the case of open-ended contracts.
“The government only took note of the displeasure and inconvenience of the employers’ federations during this process, because they were not taken into account”, in the context of the amendments to labor law that were not included in the medium-term agreement for the improvement of income and completeness, signed in October, João Vieira Lopes, spokesman for the National Council of Employers’ Confederations (CNCP), told Dinheiro Vivo, at the end of the meeting with the executive.
individual time bank
The CNCP, a platform that brings together the five national employers’ federations; Confederation of Farmers of Portugal (CAP), Confederation of Commerce and Services of Portugal (CCP), Confederation of Affairs of Portugal (CIP), Confederation of Portuguese Construction and Real Estate (CPCI) and Confederation of Tourism of Portugal (CTP), will come will meet in the coming days to take a public position and present counter-proposals, the CCP’s also leader said.
The bosses will insist on reopening the organization’s file and making working hours more flexible, the DV said. At this point, the executive will have shown some openness, even as it is about to launch the pilot project of the four-day work week promoted by the government.
But the confederations want to go further, namely with the replacement of the individual time bank, extinct since October 1, 2020. A path that is unlikely to be accepted by the government and by UGT, the only trade union center that signed the agreement. The CGTP was omitted.
Salomé Pinto is a journalist for Dinheiro Vivo
Source: DN
