The country’s retail sector is renegotiating its collective agreement. The current agreement was negotiated in 2009 and implemented a year later and nothing has been changed since. The country’s economic austerity program lasted until 2014 and held back any attempts at renegotiation. The sector’s unions especially the CGTP affiliated CESP in fact appealed to the Ministry of Labor to encorage business leaders to take up the negotiations. The climate is tense as the large retailers are demanding significant working time flexibility in exchange for a 1% rise in wages and the unions are vigorously opposed.
Talks restart on renegotiating the collective agreement. Labor regulation covering the medium and large retail sector dates back to a 2009 collective agreement that was implemented in 2010. Originally with a 12 month term, the agreement has been rolled over each year, as is, without any changes whatsoever. The Portuguese association of retail companies (APED) had refused all negotiations especially on salaries in the context of economic adjustment (IMF and EU program that lasted until June 2014
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