Mr. Prime Minister, a preliminary note: MP Mr. Hugo Soares kindly brought up the issues surrounding the labour package but managed to spend eight minutes talking about the labour package without mentioning a single measure contained in it. It should also be noted that CHEGA and Iniciativa Liberal tried to sidestep this issue, but Mr. Prime Minister, I would like to ask three specific questions.
Do you know how many workers today, particularly young people, are employed on an outsourcing basis, subcontracted to temporary employment agencies, in temporary work, on fixed-term contracts, or on daily contracts, including in the Public Administration? Do you know what percentage of new contracts are now precarious? And while we're at it, do you know how many workers, particularly women, are already working irregular hours? Irregular lives, night work, shift work on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays. The question stands, Mr. Minister.
Mr Chairman, Mr Chairman, thank you very much.
Does the Prime Minister not know or does he not want to tell what is the level of precariousness in Portugal today?
30%. 30% of contracts are precarious. People who live on a knife edge every day, people who live unstable lives, people who live in cramped conditions, people who cannot afford housing. 2.7 million workers who work irregular hours, with no time for themselves, no time for their families. This is the reality. And it is in the face of this reality that your basis, your proposal, is not only yours, let's face it, yours, that of CHEGA, the CDS and the Liberal Initiative, at the behest of the employers, your proposal to amend the labour law is nothing more than even more precariousness, more hour banks, more deregulation of the working hours of those who work, more pressure on wages, unfair dismissals. This is what is on the table. And, therefore, your law.
Your proposal will not solve any of the problems we face today. It will only make them worse. Because today, no young person is prevented from doing anything if they have a permanent contract. If they have a precarious contract, that prevents them from doing many things. First and foremost, it prevents them from accessing housing. Is this your concept of modernity? Are these your modern times?
Mr. Minister, I would like to ask you which article of the law, whatever it may be today, prevents someone with a permanent contract with a company from changing jobs?
There is no article, no law that prevents a permanent worker, a worker with security, if he so wishes, from having complete freedom to resign and go and work wherever he wants.
He is completely free to resign and there are no consequences. This is the difference between the current law and what you want to impose. You want to impose. I would say, the American way: “You’re fired and don’t bother coming back tomorrow”, and this is what you want to impose on everyone, particularly young people and women. That is the reality.
That is why, Mr. Prime Minister. And that is why. Workers are not numbers, they are not parts, and they are not disposable parts. And do not underestimate the strength of those who work, the strength that keeps the country running, the strength that carries the country on its back. That strength creates wealth, and that strength is building the defeat of your labour package every day.
And that is how it will be. You can be sure of that. And you can count on it. The more we know about the content, the more reasons there are to fight, the more reasons there are for a great general strike that paves the way for wages, dignity, respect for those who work, time to live, to develop the country, the economy and to also strengthen micro, small and medium-sized enterprises.
