Decent work and collective bargaining
The debate around the Decent Work Agenda is one of the most important political moments of this decade, whose lines of reflection will help define the direction of labor reforms, with social and economic implications that will be projected into the future, with collective bargaining taking on an unavoidable centrality in this Agenda.
Collective bargaining is a valuable business management tool, as useful to employers as it is to employees, which can resolve or mitigate in advance numerous conflicts, obstacles and contingencies in business and employment activity, in areas as diverse as the organization of working time, geographical and functional mobility or career progression. Collective bargaining, reflecting the effective involvement of the main players in labor relations in the process of defining the applicable rules, can offer more appropriate solutions to specific problems arising in various professional contexts, making up for the shortcomings of the Labor Code and other labor legislation in aspects that are often a source of instability and antagonism, with negative consequences for productivity and company performance.
In addition to a brief historical review of the legal framework for collective bargaining and an analysis of the impact of previous reforms, we reflect on possible paths to consider in a future reform. The specificities of the national collective labor relations system are analyzed, identifying its particular characteristics in order to design a balanced, dynamic and coherent model, with positive repercussions for workers and companies, guaranteeing justice at work, regulation and market stability.
Authors:Filipe Lamelas, Pedro Rita
