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Pedro Antunes, CCA's Partner and Coordinator of the Labour Department, spoke to the Human Resources magazine about how the pandemic has affected the workforce and how the legislation is adapting to this new normal.
According to Pedro Antunes, "Portuguese labour legislation is watertight, therefore a pandemic crisis of this nature, which has mobilized almost the entire workforce and confined them to their homes, has brought many challenges in terms of work and remote work organisation (...). Employers and workers have had to adapt, as well as the legislation itself, which has exceptionally set aside the rigidity of the legal teleworking regime, to ensure the prevention and control of the contagion of the COVID-19 disease".
"Some of us, specialists in labour matters, have long warned that there is a need for legislation to adapt to the future of the labour market, in view of the 2030 target and the changes that legislation should follow, considering industry 4.0 and the necessary flexibility. Now that it is a reality, we will see how the legislator, the employers and the workers react to the new "anywhere, anywhere" modality", he adds.
For Pedro Antunes, "increasing flexibility in labour legislation is essential, in order to adapt the existing figures to current needs, or even the provision of new figures, new ways of providing work that guarantee an adequate response to employers and workers. However, the changes that have been made to the labour laws are still conservative, and the current Labour Code, which is more than 10 years old, has already undergone 19 changes, which were quite subtle, and no significant change has yet been made that would allow labour law to adapt to the current market needs, even with regard to the pre-pandemic period".
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- Human Resources