Document details

Portugal's low wages: modern work or modern slavery?

Author(s): Rodrigues, Carlos Augusto ; Carvalho Campina, Ana Cláudia

Date: 2025

Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10284/15665

Origin: Repositório Institucional da Fundação Fernando Pessoa

Subject(s): Remuneration for work; Decent living; International Labour Office; Universal Declaration of Human Rights; Constitution of the Portuguese Republic


Description

Background: Article 59 of the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic (CRP) establishes in paragraph 1(a) that “all workers have the right to remuneration for their work in such a way as to guarantee a dignified existence”. This is in line with what was established in the constitution of the International Labor Office in 1919, which stipulated in article 427(3) that “the payment to the employed of a wage adequate to maintain a reasonable standard of life as this is understood in their time and country”, which is also in line with article 23(3) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. The purpose of our work is to analyze Portuguese statistical data and understand whether workers receive a wage that guarantees them a decent existence, and thus understand whether the CRP and international treaties are complied with, i.e. whether all workers have a decent existence. Methods: In this scientific research, study, analysis, and production for this article we applied a strategic qualitative methodology under a "grounded theory" underneath the inductive logic from collected data. Results: The statistics we have collected show that millions of workers do not receive a salary that guarantees them a decent existence. Conclusions: Finally, we conclude that Portugal has not yet fulfilled its Social Contract and is in violation of the ILO, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights

Document Type Conference proceedings
Language English
Contributor(s) Repositório Institucional da Fernando Pessoa; Yayar, Rüştü; Erol, Yücel; Şahin, Metehan
facebook logo  linkedin logo  twitter logo 
mendeley logo

Related documents