New General Labour Law: main changes and impacts

On December 27, Law no. 12/23 was published in the Official Gazette, approving the new General Labour Law (Lei Geral do Trabalho – new LGT), which comes into force within 90 days of its publication.

The new LGT revokes Law no. 7/15, of June 15, which was subject of Rectification no. 15/15, of October 2, and all the additional legislation that contradicts it.

The new legislation brings important changes to labour relationships, aimed at promoting a fairer, more balanced labour environment in line with the needs of today's market.

We highlight the following main changes introduced by the new LGT and their potential impact on companies:

• The obligation to reduce to writing the fixed-term employment contracts;
• The need to invoke a legal basis, of a temporary nature, for concluding a fixed-term employment contract;
• A reduction of the maximum duration of the fixed-term employment agreements, depending on the legal grounds invoked for their conclusion;
• The provision of the remote work agreements in the special types of employment agreements;
• The introduction of a chapter dedicated to personality rights, including freedom of expression and opinion, physical and moral integrity, privacy and personal data protection;
• The elimination of more favourable regimes depending on the size of the employer, in terms of the duration of the employment agreement,
  fixed-term employment agreement, salary complements, sick leave arrangements and compensation for the termination of employment agreements, among other matters;
• The increase of the list of disciplinary measures by reintroducing the temporary demotion and the suspension from work with loss of pay;
• The introduction of the “mobility of workers” as an instrument available to employers within an economic group;
• The introduction of the paternity leave, due to the birth of a child, without deduction of pay;

The provision of the legal criteria of preference for selecting the employees to be dismissed within the process of dismissal for objective causes and in collective redundancies.

This Legal Alert is only intended to introduce the most relevant changes brought by the new General Labour Law and is, therefore, not exhaustive.

In this context, we recommend that our Clients review their agreements, internal policies and human resources procedures to ensure compliance with the new General Labour Law, approved by Law no. 12/23, of December 27.

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Read the original publication at ALC Advogados.