The Government is considering “relaunching the possibility of continuous working hours” so that parents can leave work early and have more time to accompany their children, the Minister of Labor, Solidarity and Social Security announced this Friday, November 7th.
Maria do Rosário Palma Ramalho, who is being heard in the parliamentary committee on Labor, Social Security and Inclusion for the discussion on the specificity of the State Budget for 2026, in response to an intervention by the Livre party bench on flexible working hours, said that the possibility of continuous working hours is being considered.
“We are going to relaunch the possibility of continuous working hours which, in a practical way, allows fathers or mothers or both to leave early to take care of their children and, therefore, we are going to take another route that does not penalize companies so much”, he replied.
About extension of parental leave – the Government’s proposal is to extend it up to six months, if parents opt for an additional 60 days in a shared regime, after the mandatory 120 days have been taken – the minister defended that this is “a virtuous measure from the point of view of promoting equality between men and women”.
According to Maria do Rosário Palma Ramalho, with the Government’s proposal, there will be a more balanced reconciliation between professional life and family life, “precisely because the last two months must be shared between father and mother in order to have 100% participation”.
“When we give rights only to mothers, this increases inequality between men and women and, therefore, is not virtuous from the point of view of mothers’ careers”, defended the minister.
The Livre bench also questioned the minister about the possibility of children with oncological diseases being accompanied by their parents, to which the minister replied that the Government “is very sensitive” to this topic, about which it has already spoken with parents’ associations.
“We are currently considering, within the scope of the Labor XXI reform, changing the parental absence regime a little to be able to accommodate what the associations asked us to consider as more relevant”, said the official, adding that absences could become justified absences.