Portugal

Portuguese Labour Law has traditionally favoured the employee, in particular the Court system. However, the current economic situation has seen the Government adopt a policy of reducing labour costs to increase employment and improve Portugal’s overall economic performance. In April 2003, the Portuguese parliament approved a Labour Code which replaced most previous individual and collective labour legislation by bringing former provisions together into a single text. Portugal has recently passed further controversial changes to their Labour Code, impacting harshly on employees, in a further attempt to stream-line businesses into more efficient and competitive entities.