I will start by saying a banality: employment is one of the most basic needs for any person, giving rise to personal fulfillment, a means of economic and financial independence and social integration.
That said, I can't accept the real unemployment rates that figure in the order of 20% in Portugal. And I think that this is the first step: to be indignant and revolted by an absolutely unacceptable situation in a so-called developed country in the XNUMXst century.
Employment policies must be, and especially in the context we live in, an effective priority! And they must be efficient and structured in order to provide and guarantee employability rates worthy of the name.
Government/State and the private sector must work together with a view to framing the available human resources, not least because Portugal has a highly qualified workforce that is well prepared for the challenges imposed by the globalized labor market. It is not by chance that countries such as Germany, the United Kingdom, Ireland, the United Arab Emirates, to name but a few, recruit Portuguese professionals in the most diverse areas.
And when I talk about effective job creation policies, I am not talking about the so-called "work placement measures or placement internships" or "internships for long-term unemployed", which seem to be the basis of a (un)employment policy carried out for too long and that reality has shown to have perverse effects in terms of hiring in the labor market and the sustainability of social security.
If they exist, this type of measures should be transitory and regulated in order to distribute, in a balanced way, between the State and the private sector, the obligations arising from it and not aimed indiscriminately at recipients in situations as disparate as those listed in article 3 of Ordinance 204 -B/2013, of June 18th.
Situations of precarious and seasonal employment, false green receipts, contracts made against the most basic labor rights should also deserve our full attention and be the object of deep reflection: is this type of labor relations and labor market that we want?
Employers will say that the constitutionally and legally instituted labor rights impede the much-desired competitiveness. I will answer that there are adjustments that can and should be made within the legal framework of Labor Law, but that an imbalance in labor relations (which we have been witnessing) will not bring productivity or added value.
It is in the balance between productivity, competitiveness, profit and respect for workers and their most basic rights that a society and its economy will be able to advance towards growth and dignified work.
That entrepreneurship is appealed to, but that this is not the “buzzword” to address the deficiencies and incapacities of a State/set of States and of a society to respond to the scourge of unemployment.
I wonder what percentage of start ups, spin offs and self-employment projects will have the capacity to be implemented and consolidated in order to guarantee the employment of their creators and collaborators.
This matter is absolutely crucial and unavoidable in the framework of which society we want to build and I am well aware that the solution is not just about national options. I also know that election year is not conducive to serious and sustained reflection on the issue.
Unfortunately, and like so many of those who will read these lines, I have family, friends and acquaintances in situations of unemployment, internship, precarious work, contract whose rights were being cut, who emigrated...
I am well aware of the feeling of anguish and impotence when faced with these situations on a daily basis. They are people, they are families who see their right to dignity and well-being undermined.
It doesn't seem to me that it is in the hands of any enlightened person to discover the solution to such a profound problem.
But it is my deep conviction that only by making the employment issue a collective goal and only with the contribution and intervention of everyone, we will be able to envision a path that will lead us to a better place.
Author: Inês Morais Pereira is a lawyer and doctoral candidate in Innovation and Territory Management at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Algarve
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