Given that some workers could now have free weekends, there is a possibility that workers without children of the specified age will be burdened with additional work.

Companies in Portugal will no longer be able to require workers to come to work on Saturdays and Sundays if they have children younger than 12, the country's Supreme Court has ruled.

The only exception will be if the “employees are irreplaceable” in their workplace, the Portuguese newspaper Publico reported, citing the contents of the ruling. “The right to reconcile work with family life and the right to the protection of fatherhood and motherhood are enshrined in the constitution and cannot be postponed by other professional rights or duties,” the ruling states.

If companies want employees who have children younger than 12 to come to work on Saturdays and Sundays, they will have to prove in court that they are irreplaceable in the workplace and that the company's activity could be compromised by their absence.

Given that some workers could now have free weekends, there is a possibility that workers without children of the specified age will be burdened with additional work. In this regard, the Supreme Court reported that in the event of an inability to find a solution, it is necessary to apply “positive discrimination in favor of the family”.

The Supreme Court in Portugal, a country with 10.3 million inhabitants, issued this ruling after in 2019 a woman from the town of Almada, south of the capital Lisbon, appealed the decision of the multinational company she worked for. She claimed that she and her husband work weekends for that company in a shopping center and that no one can look after their two children while they are at work.

The worker wrote a letter to the company explaining her situation and requesting free weekends.

The company, whose name was not disclosed, then replied that it was prepared to exempt her from weekend work, but that it would not commit to that in the future should the job require her presence. The case then went to court, and the final decision was made by the Supreme Court.

Source: poslovni.hr