PORTUGAL:Portugal's Socialist government said yesterday it planned to start firing under-performing civil servants in an unprecedented move to reform the country's bloated public sector.
The new measures are expected to apply to workers with negative appraisals in two successive years, a spokesman for the finance ministry said.
The reform, which also includes freezing automatic promotions and shutting down various departments in the public sector, is expected to be implemented in 2008, despite strong opposition from unions and workers.
Being employed in Portugal's 700,000-strong civil service used to guarantee a job for life including automatic promotions, but conditions are getting tougher as Portugal tries to rein in public spending.
"This is one more of the planned measures in a reform that has been taking place in the public sector," said Vasco Noronha, a finance ministry spokesman.
Last week, up to 100,000 Portuguese took to the streets in Lisbon to protest against reforms they said were an attempt to scrap social and labour rights.
Demonstrators also protested against government plans to shut down schools, police departments and emergency services at hospitals to lower spending.
However, these reforms have not dented Portuguese prime minister Jose Socrates' popularity, which remains at its highest level since he took office two years ago, recent polls show.
The government met unions yesterday to discuss what it calls "orientation principles" for reforming the civil service, the spokesman said.
The sweeping reforms in the civil service are part of an effort to cut spending and bring down the budget deficit to below the European Union limit of 3 per cent of GDP in 2008.
Portugal has managed to narrow its 2006 budget deficit to 4.6 per cent of gross domestic product, down from a deficit of 6 per cent the previous year - the highest by any country in the euro zone that year. - (Reuters)