YEAR 2024 No 3

ISSN 2182-9845

Getting around with the trial period regime

David Falcão

Keywords

Trial Period; Law n.º 93/2019; Law n.º 13/2023; Judgment n.º 318/2021.

Abstract

The Law n.º 93/2019, of September 4th, removed from the list of justifying reasons underlying fixed-term hiring workers looking for their first job and the long-term unemployed. The legislative impulse was based on the aim of promoting the hiring without a fixed term of the aforementioned categories of workers, which implied the extension of the trial period to 180 days. The measure initially generated a fruitful doctrinal debate and led to the intervention of the Superior Constitucional Court, in the context of an abstract successive review of constitutionality. Despite the Court decision declaring the partial unconstitutionality of the rule relating to the extension of the trial period, the decision was not without criticism. In turn, following the decision of the Court, the legislator, linked to the Court´s decision, resorted to a solution that not only goes beyond what was postulated by the Court, but also goes against the original intention underlying the extension of the experimental period, tending to reduce the resistance of employers to concluding employment contracts without a fixed term. Now, as we believe that a set of considerations to be made in this regard is justified, the purpose of this article is to dissect the general aspects of the trial period, as well as to analyze, in a reflective way, the more specific themes of the regime that generate controversial issues.

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