Lisbon, March 16, 2026 (Lusa) - The labour minister is set to meet again with the UGT (General Workers' Union) and the four business confederations regarding changes to labour law, following the president’s appeal in the wake of the ‘breakdown’ announced by employers.

The meeting is scheduled for 3 p.m. at the Ministry of Labour, Solidarity and Social Security in Lisbon. Prime Minister Luís Montenegro has already stated that the Government wishes to “exhaust all possibilities for rapprochement”, whilst signalling that it does not intend to “prolong the discussion” indefinitely. The government has held several technical meetings with the four employers’ confederations (CIP (Business Confederation of Portugal), CCP (Portuguese Commerce and Services Confederation), CTP (Tourism Confederation of Portugal) and CAP (Farmers' Confederation of Portugal)) and the UGT to negotiate amendments to labour law, the process for which is being discussed within the framework of the Social Concertation.

The CGTP (General Confederation of the Portuguese Workers), which also has a seat in this forum and even presented a counter-proposal at a bilateral meeting on 3 September, has not been invited to the technical meetings, with the executives arguing that the trade union confederation has placed itself on the sidelines of the negotiations from the outset by calling for the proposal to be withdrawn from discussion.

The trade union confederation has indicated that it will go to the Ministry of Labour at the same time the meeting takes place.

Also in Monday’s news:

CULTURE

Spanish singer Rosalía’s “Lux” tour, which begins today in Lyon, France, and stops in Lisbon in April, will also include dates in Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, the United Kingdom, the United States, Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Chile and Puerto Rico.

On 8 and 9 April, Rosalía will perform at the MEO Arena.

Rosalía’s latest album, “Lux”, was released on 7 November. Its 18 tracks were recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Daníel Bjarnason, and feature collaborations with artists such as Carminho, Björk, Estrella Morente, Silvia Pérez Cruz, the Montserrat Choir, the Palau de la Música Catalana Chamber Choir, Yahritza and Yves Tumor.

Rosalía performed in Portugal for the first time in 2017, at a concert at Theatro Circo in Braga, where she showcased her debut album, entitled "Los Angeles", with guitarist and producer Raül Refree.

COUNTRY

The Casa para Viver platform is set to deliver a document to the Belém Palace outlining their housing demands and appealing to the president to treat the issue as a "a national emergency".

"We insist on delivering an open letter to the President of the Republic in person because the housing problem constitutes a national emergency, on a scale as great as the health crisis,” André Escoval, from the Porta a Porta movement, told Lusa.

Housing “must be one of the priorities of this Presidency of the Republic and must be tackled immediately”, he said.  

The Casa para Viver platform – which brings together dozens of associations and groups defending the right to housing – has called for demonstrations on the 21st in 14 Portuguese cities to demand solutions to the housing crisis.

In the open letter to be delivered in Belém, the platform calls for rent control, a freeze on mortgage repayments at February 2026 levels, a minimum lease term of ten years or more, and a presidential veto on “any changes to the eviction law”.

Representatives from the movements Porta a Porta, Vida Justa, Primeiro Esquerdo, Projeto Ruído, Interjovem, the Lisbon Tenants’ Association, and the Alfama Heritage and Residents’ Association, amongst others, will be present for the handover of the document in Belém.

Demonstrations have been confirmed for next Saturday in Lisbon, Porto, Portalegre, Barreiro, Lagos, Covilhã, Funchal, Braga, Coimbra, Aveiro, Viseu, Leiria, Vila Nova de Santo André and Benavente.

The “Enough is enough! We’re back on the streets for a home to live in!” manifesto has already been signed by around a hundred organisations.

On Thursday, the cabinet approved a series of amendments to tenancy laws aimed at breaking the deadlock in resolving undivided inheritances and speeding up evictions.

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The mayors of Vila Franca de Xira, Azambuja, Alenquer, Arruda dos Vinhos and Benavente are meeting with the health minister to discuss the closure of the gynaecology and obstetrics A&E department at Vila Franca de Xira Hospital.

With this closure, patients will be referred to Loures hospital, where the regional gynaecology and obstetrics A&E (Accident and Emergency) department will begin operating on Monday.

This is one of the regional A&E departments to be established in the field of obstetrics and gynaecology to address the shortage of healthcare professionals; another is already planned for the Setúbal Peninsula, to be based at Garcia de Orta Hospital in Almada and leading to the closure of the A&E department in Barreiro.

Vila Franca de Xira Hospital was opened in March 2013 to serve around 250,000 residents of the municipalities of Alenquer (Lisbon district), Arruda dos Vinhos (Lisbon), Azambuja (Lisbon), Benavente (Santarém) and Vila Franca de Xira (Lisbon).

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Internal Affairs Minister Luís Neves, is meeting for the first time with all the PSP (Portuguese Public Security Police) trade unions and GNR (Portuguese National Republican Guard) associations at a gathering intended to exchange greetings and discuss priority measures.

Luís Neves will meet with the 16 PSP trade unions, including those without the right to negotiate with the government, and the six GNR associations.

As there are far more PSP trade unions, the minister will meet individually with the six that have negotiating power and the remainder in two groups.

Luís Neves met last Wednesday with the Police Professionals’ Trade Union Association, the largest PSP union, which had walked out of negotiations with the previous minister, Maria Lúcia Amaral, accusing her of failing to honour the agreement signed with the government in 2024, which provided, amongst other matters, for a pay review

At a time when he was beginning a series of meetings with the PSP unions and GNR associations, the minister wrote on social media that he considers the contribution of these bodies to be essential “so that public decisions are taken with an understanding of the reality on the ground”.

ADB // ADB

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