Cláudia Varela speaks to the Jornal de Notícias about Decree-Law No 105/2009

Cláudia Varela, a senior associate at PLMJ who specialises in employment law, contributed to the Jornal de Notícias article entitled “Benefits replace unpaid salary rent is exempted” on the newly enacted Decree-Law No 105/2009.

The issue here is that the law provides employees who stop receiving their salary with the possibility of bringing about the “suspension of their employment relationship”. This means they can receive an “allowance paid in instalments for as long as their employment remains suspended. During the period of suspension provision is also made for the possibility for the employee to take advantage of certain benefits such as being exempt from payment of the rent on their home, the possibility to apply for suspension of possession proceedings based on non-payment of rent and the suspension of the enforcement of a judgment made in debt-related proceedings.

According to PLMJ’s specialist, these employees who maintain their relationship with their employer are not officially unemployed (although they receive the allowance as if they were) and who end up joining the ranks of the unemployed, are still an additional burden on the social security system. On top of this, as the employees in this situation are not included in the official statistics, they contribute to the fact that the official unemployment figures far from reflect the reality of the situation.

See the statements in the pdf file below.