Portugal aims to cut 30,000 civil service jobs

[Baluarte]

Portugal is planning to cut 30,000 civil service jobs and to raise the retirement age by one year to 66 as it tries to meet the terms of a bailout.

Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho said civil servants would also be required to work 40 hours a week instead of 35.

The proposals, which would be applied mostly from next year, would save 4.8bn euros (£4bn) over three years, he said.

Austerity measures have proved deeply unpopular and have triggered large protests.

"With these measures, our European partners cannot doubt our commitment" to the bailout, Mr Coelho said in an address to the nation late on Friday.

"To hesitate now would harm the credibility that we have already won back," he added.

Portugal received a 78bn euro bailout from the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund in 2011.

Unemployment stands at nearly 18% - a record high - and the economy is expected to shrink for a third consecutive year in 2013.

Last month, the Portuguese Constitutional Court struck down more than 1bn euros (£847m; $1.3bn) of proposed cuts, which included the suspension of holiday bonuses for public sector workers and pensioners.

That forced the centre-right government to look elsewhere for savings - though it has ruled out raising taxes.

"We will not raise taxes to correct the budgetary problem resulting from the Constitutional Court's decision," Mr Coelho said.

"The way must be through the structural reduction of public spending."

Portugal's main Socialist opposition party has accused Mr Coelho of inflicting excessive austerity on Portugal in pursuit of an ideologically driven programme.

[The Lawspeaker]

Looks like the EU is busy killing Europe.

[Vasconcelos]

The most disgusting thing isn't even the job cuts on the Public sector, it's the constant attack on the most fragile people on our society - the retired, the ones that built the country, that paid their taxes to help the whole public sector while they were working, and that now get completely shafted when they are elderly and have no means from which to defend themselves. That's what really rustles my jimmies.

[Lusos]

He (Passos Coelho) said,It's the only way.Or we have to leave the Euro.!!!

[Vasconcelos]

He (Passos Coelho) said,It's the only way.Or we have to leave the Euro.!!!

I'm not so sure leaving the Euro would be a bad thing by now.

[Lusos]

We would be In shit anyway.

But at least we wouldn't be fucked by strangers.


Leaving the EURO is the best solution.Print more money lower Taxes criate jobs.
We have one of the biggest "exclusive"trade area. We have a lot of connections.We dont need cars from Germany.

I'm trully pissed off with Europe.

[Baluarte]

More details on the austerity program to be discussed today:

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Portugal begins talks on further austerity measures
By Peter Wise in Lisbon

The Lisbon government will begin talks with trade unions on Monday over a controversial austerity package aimed at cutting up to 30,000 public sector jobs, raising the minimum retirement age to 66 and adding five hours to the public sector working week.

Pedro Passos Coelho, the prime minister, needs to push the measures through to keep Portugal’s €78bn bailout programme on track. But opposition parties and union leaders have bluntly rejected his appeal for consensus on the reforms, which seek to bring employment conditions in the public sector in line with the private sector.

“This brutal austerity package is totally unacceptable,” said Arménio Carlos, leader of the Communist-leaning CGTP-Intersindical, the country biggest union confederation. The Socialists, the main opposition party, called for an early election.

Economists have questioned whether the package, which involves €4.8bn in spending cuts over the next three years, is compatible with government forecasts that the economy will return to growth in 2014 after three years of deep recession and record unemployment.

Announcing the reforms in a televised address on Friday night, the prime minister said failure to comply with the bailout programme and implement further tough austerity measures would “probably result in [Portugal’s] exit from the euro”, which would have “catastrophic consequences”.

Permanent changes to public sector pay, pensions and staffing levels were “unavoidable”, he said, given that wages and welfare payments, including pensions, accounted for almost 70 per cent of total public expenditure. Most of the measures are due to take effect from January 2014.

He said up to 30,000 of the 584,000 public sector workers, accounting for about a fifth of the total workforce, could be made redundant as a result of the reforms, which will make it possible to lay off state employees who previously could only be dismissed for disciplinary reasons.

Some of those would be laid off immediately by mutual agreement. Others would receive reduced wages – falling from two-thirds to one-third of their current pay over 18 months – while they were retrained. Workers not readmitted to service after 18 months retraining would be laid off.

Public and private sector workers will not be eligible to receive a full state pension until they are 66, a year later than under current law. Retirement at 65 will remain possible, but at a lower rate of pension.

Minimum public sector working hours are to be increased from 35 to 40 a week, bringing them in line with the private sector. Annual holidays are to be cut from 25-32 days for civil servants to 22 days, the same as the private sector.
Health service contributions for civil servants are to be increased by 1 per cent of wages and sick-pay rates lowered to the same level as in the private sector. The prime minister said he was also considering an additional “sustainability” tax on pensions.

The measures have to be approved by the troika of Portugal’s international lenders – the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank – before Lisbon can receive its next €2bn instalment of bailout funds. Final approval of a decision to ease the terms of Portugal’s rescue loans is also contingent on the reforms.

Mr Passos Coelho said he wanted to discuss the measures with unions and opposition parties to “minimise their impact” and ensure that they did not contravene the constitution. The reforms are partly a response to a court ruling in April that several planned austerity measures were unconstitutional.

The prime minister said a consensus on this austerity package would strengthen Portugal’s “negotiating capacity and credibility in Europe”. But António José Seguro, leader of the opposition Socialists, ruled out any prospect of co-operation, saying the government was “driving Portugal into a brick wall with its foot on the accelerator”.

[HispaniaSagrada]

I still have some of my escudos. They're way prettier looking than Euros. I know that's not what's important but I'm just saying I'm a visual and idealist kinda guy.

PS. I'm curious. Do people in Portugal still say "paus?" For example "Empresta-me 50 paus." If they do what does it refer to? Euro cents?

[Vasconcelos]

Not anymore, "paus" used to be a slang for escudos.

[HispaniaSagrada]

Not anymore, "paus" used to be a slang for escudos.

Que pena.

When the Euro was introduced do you know at what point people stopped saying that?

I left before that happened. I don't even know what it would be like to change currency. It must be weird. One day you have one type of money and the next you're looking at something else and calling it something different.

I would think it'd be natural to transpose the terms and call cents "paus" and 10 Euros "um conto"

If I ever go back to Portugal I'm gonna ask somebody to let me have 50 paus. If they say they don't know what I'm talking about I'll look at them like they are strange :laugh:

xD

[Vasconcelos]

They'll probably say "já não temos paus", which can be something funny if it's a man saying it lol