Length of service and fixed-term contracts: what really counts?

Article by Bruno Martelo published in Julgar magazine

The use of fixed-term contracts has accompanied the labour reality of Public Administration. Whether to meet temporary needs of public services or to address others that, while labelled as temporary, are only so by virtue of the contractual framework assigned to them, the truth is that public entities frequently resort to fixed-term employment relationships. As a result, from time to time, “salvific” regularisation procedures emerge as attempts to restore order to the system. Indeed, as was already acknowledged in the preamble to Decree-Law no. 81-A/96 of 21 June, a significant portion of these contracts aims to meet permanent needs of public services, often extending over several years, with occasional interruptions here and there designed to circumvent legal limits and to create an appearance of discontinuity and non-permanence of the underlying need.

While it is true that, under the impetus of European Union law, a principle of non-discrimination has been established between fixed-term workers and permanent workers in comparable situations, the extensive case law of the Court of Justice on this matter shows that Member States’ legislation still allows situations of differential treatment that lack any objective justification.

In Portugal, based on the argument that workers under fixed-term public employment relationships are not integrated into career structures, it is considered, among other things, that the length of service performed under such arrangements cannot be taken into account for the purposes of salary positioning changes in the career that they may later enter, nor can it be considered for the application of what is commonly known as the career progression accelerator.

The question therefore arises as to whether, in light of the current public employment regime and the aforementioned principle of non-discrimination, there is any basis for excluding these periods of service.

You can read the full article [written in Portuguese] on the Julgar website or download the PDF version.