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Portuguese parliament to vote on restoration of 35-hour week

Xinhua, January 13, 2016 Adjust font size:

The Portuguese parliament is to vote on the bills submitted by leftist parties on the restoration of the 35-hour week for public servants, after more than two years of a 40-hour week imposed by the previous centre-right coalition government.

The Portuguese Communist Party, Green Party, Left Bloc are in disagreement with the ruling Socialist Party on when the new working hours are to come into force. The Socialist government wants the measure to begin in the second half of the year while the three leftist parties want to it to be implemented as soon as possible.

The National Federation of State Employees warned on Monday it will hold strike on Jan. 29 if the bills on 35-hour week do not pass in the parliament on Friday.

The previous centre-right coalition government imposed the 40-hour week in 2013 in a view to raising productivity under the 78-billion-euro (about 85 billion U.S. dollars) bailout program with international creditors while the new Socialist government has vowed to reverse the austerity measures implemented by the previous government in past few years. Endit