The trade union federation intends to reaffirm its proposals and contests the attempt to exclude it from the meeting on labour law, considering it a violation of the constitutional right to participation. The Government has been negotiating the 'Trabalho XXI' package, which includes over 100 amendments to the Labour Code, with the UGT and employers.
CGTP was not invited but will appear at the Ministry of Labour on Monday
Friday, 13 March 2026RSS
Context & Explainers
The CGTP study is a report published by the General Confederation of Portuguese Workers (Confederação Geral dos Trabalhadores Portugueses), Portugal's largest trade-union centre. Such studies typically analyse pay, working conditions and public-sector cuts and are used by unions to justify strike actions and policy demands.
A banked hours scheme (commonly called banco de horas in Portuguese) lets employees store overtime or unused hours and use them later as paid time off instead of receiving immediate extra pay. The CGTP (Confederação Geral dos Trabalhadores Portugueses) proposal in its labour-review document would extend flexible working and the option to bank hours to parents with children up to 16, giving them more ability to adjust work time around family needs while hours are formally tracked.
The General Confederation of the Portuguese Workers (CGTP – Confederação Geral dos Trabalhadores Portugueses) is Portugal’s largest trade-union confederation, grouping most unions in manufacturing, public services and many other sectors.
Founded clandestinely in 1970 as “Intersindical” under the dictatorship, it emerged publicly after the 1974 Carnation Revolution and was legalised in 1975. It has been central to virtually all major labour struggles since then, from defending collective bargaining and the 40‑hour week to leading general strikes against austerity and labour‑law rollbacks.
CGTP is historically close to the Portuguese Communist Party and has a class‑struggle, anti‑neoliberal profile, strongly critical of EU and government policies seen as undermining workers’ rights. It favours grassroots mobilisation and strikes over compromise, often refusing national social‑pact deals that the more centrist UGT is willing to sign.
In today’s Portugal, CGTP remains a key actor in wage bargaining, labour‑law debates and national protests; together with UGT it called the first joint general strike in years in December 2025, signalling its continuing capacity to organise mass action.
RSS source
Other news coverage of this topic
- CGTP to reaffirm labour law proposals at ministry on Monday despite not being invited8:13pm, 13 Mar 2026 • RTP Notícias
- CGTP to visit ministry on Monday despite not being invited7:43pm, 13 Mar 2026 • ECO
- CGTP to present itself to the Ministry of Labour to 'reaffirm' proposals on labour law despite not being summoned7:38pm, 13 Mar 2026 • CNN Portugal
- CGTP reaffirms proposals on labour law at the ministry on Monday despite not being summoned7:22pm, 13 Mar 2026 • Correio da Manhã
- Labour Package: Even without an invitation, CGTP attends meeting7:18pm, 13 Mar 2026 • Observador
