PLMJ
  November 20, 2003 - Lisbon, Portugal

Termination of Employment Contracts
  by Eduardo Pinto

The Labour Code has not made profound changes to the system governing the termination of employment contracts. From among those made, reference should be made to the extension of certain time limits (judicial opposition to collective dismissal, reply to formal charge sheets); to the creation of new assumptions (acceptance of collective dismissal against compensation, reduction of the number of days of absence constituting the assumption of job abandonment); to the updating of conducts constituting just cause for dismissal; and to the possibility of disciplinary proceedings being reopened in cases where an employee is reinstated as a result of his/her unlawful dismissal having been declared due to the proceedings containing formal defects. The most important change introduced by the Labour Code, due to it being the most reformative and to the consequences it will bring for companies, is the possibility of in certain cases (microcompanies or where employees hold management positions), the employer being entitled to oppose the reinstatement of the employee on duly supported grounds, in which case it will be the courts that will or not validate any such opposition. In the legislation that was revoked by the Code, reinstatement depended exclusively on the employee. Eduardo Nogueira Pinto ([email protected])