Portugal: Casual workers in public sector can now apply to join staff – PM

Lisbon, May 10 (Lusa) – Portugal’s prime minister, António Costa, assured parliament that public employees with no permanent contract should be able to apply immediately to be taken on as staff, under new legislation that takes effect on Thursday.

“Only with a lot of bad luck will what is foreseen today not happen tomorrow,” Costa said in the fortnightly debate in the assembly, citing “a computer failure, a power cut or a problem of that nature”.

Under the new rules, “from tomorrow workers who are in a precarious [employment] situation in the state will be able to request the assessment of their situation and start their process of integration into the staff of the state,” Costa said.

Earlier, Catarina Martins of the Left Block, one of the parties that provides the minority Socialist government with its parliamentary support base, expressed concern at what she said were “delays” with the process, and called for action to meet the “expectation of each one of these workers” with no permanent contract.

The prime minister had previously stressed that “the state has to be the first to give an example, but the fight against precarious work must involve the whole of society.”

PPF/ARO // ARO.

Lusa