en 
The trial was confirmed by the Minister of the Presidency,
Mariana Vieira da Silva, in an interview with Público newspaper.
"Our ambition is, along with what will happen in the
private sector [with the four-day week], also to work in the public
administration with some differences, because we have many services that are
not compatible with this type of organisation of time", considered the
minister.
Mariana Vieira da Silva said that the pilot project for the
four-day week is being developed with the Ministry of Labour and that some
public bodies have already expressed an interest in joining this modality,
although the methodology to be adopted may vary depending on the institution in
question.
"There is transversal work on the organisation of work
time that has multiple dimensions, from telework to the four-day week, which
seems to me to be a fundamental agenda for the coming times and also
business", underlined the minister in the same interview.
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Great idea, let's have the already unproductive civil service work even less.
By Quentin Ferreira from Lisbon on 17 Oct 2022, 20:52
So take out lunch breaks, public holidays, weekends, parish holidays, when do they actually work, I've never seen so many religious holidays as in this country, talk about productivity, the big shopping centers have really shaken things up, imagine if they closed for 2 hours every day for lunch like many smaller shops, we have to eat is their excuse, try going to China with that mentality, or any Asian country for that matter, their work ethics are different, so when people in Portugal complain about being poor, we'll you don't work, what do you want.
By Mr John from Algarve on 18 Oct 2022, 04:09
Socialism 101: no work, just handouts and total dependancy on the state. Next stop: why are people queuing for toilet paper and where are those handing it out?
By Hart from Lisbon on 18 Oct 2022, 07:36
@Mr John from Algarve - If you think it's so terrible here, you know where the airport is..
By MartynCymro from Beiras on 19 Oct 2022, 10:27
Wonderful. It took 8 months to register a normal car (that I'd already owned for years) with an EU certificate of conformity and all paperwork in order from Germany when moving to Portugal (so it's tax-free, which adds bureaucracy), using an agent because the registration process is impenetrable. Let's make that even longer. (It took one hour to register it when I moved to Germany.) The MIT want EU driving licences registered too but the online links point to the wrong form and when you finally email them the right form after finding it on an expat site, they ignore it; I sent it mid-May. Health centres ignore emails. The Portuguese are very nice people and I'm very happy to be here in general, but some things are dysfunctional.
By TF from Porto on 19 Oct 2022, 10:57
I am sure public administrators can achieve the same output by working one day a week.
By Paul Rees from Lisbon on 19 Oct 2022, 11:17
With government orgaisations (such as SEF), months and in some visa classes years behind in processing applications, this is not really the way forward.
If following the private sector examples was the point of this trial, then set Performance Indicators and minimum production rates per employee and department per week.
Private Sector work from home and 4-day work weeks do NOT allow an employees to reduce productivity, but enforces a regime of efficiency and time management on to the individual.
Do the same for government administration departments, especially those that serve commercially important sectors, such as incoming foreign investment capital, planning and business license approvals.
By Tony Williams from Other on 19 Oct 2022, 12:50
This sounds insane. Make a slow and lazy system even slower? Many expats are already starting to look elsewhere, because of the proposed tax changes with crypto. This might help them make an even quicker decision.
By Mark from Lisbon on 19 Oct 2022, 13:08
Well this is the reason the Socialists keep getting votes! The Socialists give so much attention to the "civil SERVANTS" (yes servants to all of us who pay for them) because they hold a huge percentage of the voting power. Now they have a mandate to be even more slack than ever. Nice one !
By L from Other on 19 Oct 2022, 13:17
It takes 6 months already to get my car documents ??? SEF can’t get an appointment inside 6 months and the lawyers get nothing done inside 3. What’s to come now ???
By Chris Loynes from Algarve on 19 Oct 2022, 14:06
I would love to work a 4 day week!
By Lisa from Other on 19 Oct 2022, 14:49