Conselho de Ministros Walks the Trabalho XXI Labour-Reform Bill Out of Concertação Social and Into Parliament on Thursday 14 May — Palma Ramalho's July Draft Anchors the Final Text After Nine Months of Talks Collapse Without UGT Agreement

The Conselho de Ministros approved on Thursday 14 May 2026 — at the 09:30 weekly meeting at the official residence in Lisbon — the proposta de lei that converts the government's nine-month Trabalho XXI exercise into the bill that now goes to Parliament. The text bypasses the social-concertação table that broke down on the previous Thursday 7 May without an agreement, and lands at the Assembleia da República as the most consequential rewrite of the Código do Trabalho since the 2012 troika-era amendments. Prime Minister Luís Montenegro framed the decision in São Bento on Wednesday 13 May with a single line: 'O país tem de decidir se assim chega ou se olhamos para a frente.'

The text behind the vote

Labour Minister Maria do Rosário Palma Ramalho confirmed at the 11 May appearance that the parliamentary version is built on the original anteprojeto circulated in July 2025 — a document with more than 100 alterações to the Código do Trabalho — 'enriquecido' with select contributions from the social partners but not the late-stage UGT compromises. The package covers four large blocks: an overhaul of dismissal procedures and severance frameworks; a recalibration of overtime, banco de horas and adaptabilidade rules to give employers more annualised flexibility; a rewrite of the teletrabalho regime that has been in force since the 2021 emergency law; and a tightening of the procedure for collective bargaining caducidade — the automatic expiry of out-of-date convenções coletivas that has produced the long-running standoff between confederações patronais and CGTP-aligned unions.

Why concertação failed

The decisive break came on Thursday 7 May at the final formal meeting of the Concertação Social. The Confederação Empresarial de Portugal, CIP, CCP and CAP all signalled willingness to sign a partial accord. The CGTP walked out months earlier; the UGT — under Mário Mourão since the 2025 leadership change — engaged through to the final session but refused to sign on the dismissal-procedure rewrite and on the overtime block. Montenegro told the CCP plenary on 13 May that 'a confederação sindical que estava disponível manteve-se intransigente e inflexível, na fase final.' Palma Ramalho, addressing the regional camaras de comércio circuit on 11 May, framed the outcome with the now-circulating phrase 'há mais vida' for além da reforma laboral — a signal that the government is moving on rather than reopening the table.

The parliamentary path

The proposta de lei now enters the Assembleia da República's spring legislative cycle. PSD and CDS-PP together hold a relative majority but not the absolute majority required to push the package through over PS opposition. Montenegro confirmed on Wednesday that he has 'a disponibilidade' of Chega leader André Ventura for negotiation and intends to confirm 'pessoalmente' the equivalent willingness from PS secretary-general José Luís Carneiro. The PS denied any availability for parallel laboral talks late on 13 May, and Chega's Ventura signalled he would not move on his own demands. The path therefore runs either through a PSD-Chega convergência on the substantive blocks or a PSD-PS partial agreement on a smaller subset.

The street response

The CGTP, under secretary-general Tiago Oliveira, has filed the formal pré-aviso for the 12.ª greve geral on 3 June 2026 — a date that lands two weeks into the parliamentary debate window. UGT decided not to join. The Conselho de Ministros approval today therefore opens the formal sixty-day clock during which the legislative debate, the 3 June general strike, and the parallel UGT-PS-PSD bilateral channel will all run in parallel.

Sources: Portugal.gov.pt — Trabalho XXI Anteprojeto; Público; Observador; ECO; Jornal de Negócios; Notícias ao Minuto, 13–14 May 2026.