Hugo Soares Greenlights the Trabalho XXI Floor Vote With Chega's Backing on Saturday's Plenary — Despedimentos Bar Aberto, Férias Buy-Up and Shift-Premium Stack Frame the 100-Plus Código do Trabalho Rewrite

The Portuguese government walked into the 19 June 2026 plenary debate on the Trabalho XXI (Labour XXI) reform of the Código do Trabalho (Labour Code) treating Saturday's floor vote as already won. Hugo Soares, leader of the parliamentary bench of the Partido Social Democrata (PSD — Social Democratic Party), used his closing intervention to tell the opposition that "por muito que vos custe, amanhã esta proposta vai ser aprovada" (however much it costs, tomorrow this proposal will be approved). The Chega (Enough) bench, whose votes carry the bill in the absence of a PSD-CDS-PP majority, had signalled support without formally announcing how it will vote until the final reading.

The package on the table runs to more than 100 changes to the Labour Code, the product of an 11-month process and nine months of social-concertation talks that ran to 58 meetings before the Conselho de Ministros (Council of Ministers) approved a draft on 15 May. Four blocks of the proposal carried the bulk of the floor exchange. The first is the so-called despedimentos bar aberto (open-bar dismissals): the regime that lets employers ask the courts to substitute reinstatement of an unfairly dismissed worker with a compensation payment is widened from senior or trust positions to all categories and all company sizes. Chega had asked for the widening to be confined to micro and small companies; the government held the line, with leader André Ventura describing it on the floor as something "que nós nunca conseguimos fazer" (that we never managed to do).

The second block touches férias (vacation). Under current law a full-time worker is entitled to a 22-working-day floor of paid annual leave. The Trabalho XXI text lets workers convert qualifying absences into purchased extra days, instead of the automatic additional days regime Chega initially asked for; Ventura claimed the win on the floor under the line "amanhã as pessoas perguntar-se-ão quem é que nos conseguiu mais" (tomorrow people will ask who got us more).

The third block reframes the trabalho por turnos (shift work) premium. Chega had asked for a 20% increase on the monthly base remuneration of shift workers; the government's text retains a more modest review tied to the number of monthly shifts performed. The fourth block — the dispensa para aleitação (breastfeeding leave) — pulls the current open-ended entitlement back to age two of the child and adds a medical-certification trigger from year two onwards. Chega negotiated a softer landing, with semi-annual medical re-certification rather than the harder cap initially floated.

The Partido Socialista (PS — Socialist Party) and the parliamentary left voted against from start to finish of the debate. PS deputy Miguel Cabrita told the chamber the package "vão tornar a vida dos trabalhadores num inferno" (will turn workers' lives into hell). The União Geral de Trabalhadores (UGT — General Union of Workers), the smaller of the two confederations, did not exclude a second general strike after the 3 June stoppage if the Saturday vote confirms the current text, with secretary-general Mário Mourão warning of "contestação permanente" (permanent contestation). The Confederação Geral dos Trabalhadores Portugueses (CGTP — General Confederation of Portuguese Workers) has already bused Algarve members into the 18 June São Bento rally and is staging a second wave around the floor vote.

Assuming the bill clears Saturday's reading, it moves to comissão especializada (committee) for the article-by-article specialty vote that will define the exact wording before promulgação (promulgation) by the Presidente da República (President of the Republic). Government planners are working to a calendar that puts the published lei (law) in the Diário da República (official gazette) before the August parliamentary recess, with the entry-into-force date most likely in early autumn.