The impact of the crisis and austerity measures on social rights in Portugal and intergenerational justice

This article analyses the main aspects of the Portuguese labour law reform compelled by the financial assistance programme (namely, the Memorandum of Understanding on Specific Economic Policy Conditionality signed by the Portuguese State, the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund) and its potential impact in terms of intergenerational justice. The key points of the labour law reform considered in this study concern wages, working time, termination of the employment contract and collective bargaining. As it will be explained, if on the one hand these reforms have led to a severe worsening of working conditions standards, on the other hand, they can also compromise classic principles of labour law such as the favor laboratoris principle and undermine intergenerational justice. Some of the measures breach international conventions ratified by Portugal, such as ILO Conventions and the Revised European Social Charter. Still, neither the Portuguese legislator, nor the Portuguese Courts have considered these international instruments. Nevertheless, there were some attempts to invoke the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, referring various questions to the Court of Justice that who refused to intervene, overlooking the European context in which these decisions were taken. In this situation, the main role was played by the Portuguese Constitutional Court, which declared unconstitutional some of the government measures for infringement of the principles of equality, proportionality, protection of trust, collective bargaining and local administration autonomy. Recent studies show a huge social impact of the adjustment programme in terms of equality and poverty in Portugal and supported the controversial decisions of the current left wing government to reverse some of the reforms, with some apparently (debatable) positive economic effects.