Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2012, published 102nd ILC session (2013)

Social Security (Minimum Standards) Convention, 1952 (No. 102) - Portugal (Ratification: 1994)

With reference to its observation of 2007, the Committee notes the Government’s report received in September 2011 accompanied by observations from the General Confederation of Portuguese Workers (CGTP–IN) and the General Union of Workers (UGT). The Committee also notes the annual reports from Portugal on the application of the European Code of Social Security for the 2008–12 period. According to these sources, even though the minimum standards established by the Convention continue to be applied in the country, recent developments in the national social security system in the context of the economic and financial crisis have featured austerity measures aimed at reducing social expenditure and resulting in greater precarity and poverty. The Committee recalls that the social security system would not fulfil its role if its benefits are incapable of keeping workers above the poverty threshold. In view of the fact that poverty reduction is one of the main objectives of the Convention, the Committee requests the Government to send in its next report the most recent and comprehensive statistics on the dynamics of poverty in the country, including data on the number of beneficiaries and the minimum amounts of social benefits in comparison with the poverty threshold. The Government is also requested to demonstrate, on the basis of statistics for the period covered by the next report, that the readjustment of benefits for all protected persons has enabled the real value of benefits in relation to the cost of living to be maintained, in accordance with Article 65(10) of the Convention.