Desvalorização interna e reforma trabalhista em Portugal

Abstract

The global financial crisis and its impacts in the Eurozone, since 2011, forced Portugal to adopt a so-called “internal devaluation” policy, where labour reform played a central role. Attention is drawned in this article to the role played by both neoclassical “labour economics” theory and international institutions such as the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, the International Monetary Fund and, above all, the European Union. In 2011, leveraging the vulnerable position of southern european states then afflicted by financial stress, these institutions imposed deep austerity measures and a labour market reform in return for the official loans then granted to these countries. The “internal devaluation” policy is now celebrated as being key for the current economic and employment recovery in this country. In this article, the theoretical and institutional origins of such measures are scrutinized as well as their lasting impacts. It is argued that the current economic recovery bears a very thin relation with the “internal devaluation” measures. Instead, such policy have enhanced the vulnerability of portuguese workers, who now stand in a fragile position when facing future economic downturns.