‘I don’t think the four-day week should be the country’s priority,’ says Salvador de Mello

  • ECO News
  • 8 June 2022

"Only with serious and thorough work to increase competitiveness will it be possible to resolve the issue of wages in Portugal," says Salvador de Mello. Attracting investment is critical.

Attracting investment and strengthening the competitiveness of the Portuguese economy. Only then will it be possible to pay higher wages, says the chief executive of the José de Mello Group. In this context, the four-day week should not be a priority.

“We all wish wages were much higher. But there is no magic wand to solve this. Only with serious and thorough work to increase competitiveness will it be possible to resolve the issue of wages in Portugal,” Salvador de Mello said at a meeting with journalists on Tuesday to present the group’s results.

“For the same reasons I mentioned the wages, I don’t think the four-day week should be the country’s priority. It should be the strengthening of growth and competitiveness, to generate more prosperity,” added the CEO of the Mello family holding company.

With the State Budget for 2022, a proposal to carry out a pilot project with 100 companies was approved, in order to assess the viability of the four-day week measure. This commitment is part of the Decent Work Agenda, approved by the Council of Ministers last week.

Salvador de Mello emphasised the need to “take a long-term view and have the courage to address the problems”. To solve them, “investment attraction is absolutely critical,” he argued. “Portugal has to become attractive for investment. And within this investment choose sectors where the differentiation component is important and that from this differentiation it is possible to remunerate people better,” he added.