Legal alert no. 17

It has been published in the Portuguese Official Gazette, on January 18th, the Portaria no. 34/2017, which rules the creation of the labour measure Agreement-Employment, which corresponds to a financial support granted to the employer, who enters into an employment agreement with an unemployed who is registered at the Institute of Employment and Professional Training (IEFP), and furthermore as per the definition of unemployed as it is foreseen in article 6 of this Portaria.

This measure aims to achieve the goals of the approved policy for employment, regarding the employment support, foreseen in articles 3 and 9 of the Decree-Law no. 13/2015, of January 26th, with the scope of namely:

• Preventing and ending with the unemployment;
• Supporting the net creation of employment, in particular, in economically disadvantaged areas, in order to reduce the regional imbalances;
• Promoting the employability of targets with a greater difficulty of inclusion in the employment market;
• Promoting the improvement and the quality of the employment, fostering longer employment relationships.

The sole proprietors and the legal entities with private nature, which fulfill with the requirements set out in article 3 of this Portaria may apply for this measure.

As regards to the requirements foreseen for granting the financial support, which are better defined under the Portaria, namely, in article 7 and in the subsequent articles, the provisions of article 4 establish the following:

• The employment’s offer requires to be published and registered at the IEFP portal, including the reference to the intention to apply for the measure;
• The closing of an employment agreement, in full-time or in part-time, with an unemployed registered at IEFP, may be concluded prior the submission of the application, but it has to be always after the employment offer has been registered;
• The promotion of net employment and the maintenance of the employment’s level achieved through the support;
• The provision of professional training during the term of the support;
• The fulfilment of the provisions foreseen for the guaranteed monthly salary and, if applicable, of the relevant collective regulation instrument, namely regarding to the calculation of the salary provided under the agreement.

It should be pointed out that, for purposes of this Portaria, it is qualified as net employment creation whenever, within the month the employment offer has been registered, the employer has achieved, through financial support provided for under this measure, a total number of workers higher than the average of the workers registered in the 12 months preceding the month of the registration date of the offer.

However, this measure once provided demands the obligation of maintaining the employment agreement and the employment level, since the beginning of the effectiveness of the agreement and over (i) the term of 24 months, in case of open-ended agreements and (ii) the initial term of the agreement, in case of fixed-term agreements.

If and whenever all requirements for the achievement of the financial support measure are fulfilled, article 10 of the Portaria provides for the assignment of the following values:

• 9 times the amount of the Social Support Indexant (IAS), in case of open-ended agreements;
• 3 times the amount of IAS, in case of fixed-term agreements.

These amounts can also be increased 10%), whenever the conditions foreseen in paragraph 2 and in the subsequent paragraphs of article 10 of the Portaria are fulfilled, and, as per article 11, a premium for the conversion of a fixed-term agreement in an open-ended agreement may be additionally granted, with an amount corresponding to 2 times the monthly salary, up to a cap of 5 times the IAS amount.

These payments will be made by means of three instalments, in accordance with the provisions of article 14 of this Portaria.

This Portaria entered into force on January 19th, 2017.