The reform of the Portuguese Public Administration targets a more efficient, citizen oriented administration and to reduce administrative costs. It started with the structural reform of Central Administration services. In this context, additional laws were passed, related to the mobility of public employees (Law no. 53/2006, of 7th of December), a new performance assessment system (Law no. 66-B/2007, of 28th of December), a new legal employment system, new career system and new pay scales (Law no. 12-A/2008, of 27th of February), a new employment contract in public functions system (law no. 59/2008, of 11th of September), a new disciplinary statute of civil servants and contractual staff (law n.º 58/2008, of 22nd of January), a new social protection scheme of staff fulfilling public functions (law no. 4/2009, of 29th of January), the extinction and merger of careers (Decree-law no. 121/2008, of 11th of July), as well as new procedures relating to staff recruitment and selection (Ministerial Order no. 83-A/2009, of 22nd of January).
The main principles of public employment reform relate to:
- Alignment with the private sector with regard to the legal employment relationship;
- The status of "public servant" is assigned to a few, special functions related to the exercise of powers conferred by public law that safeguard the general interests of the state: Military, Foreign Affairs, State Security, Criminal Investigation, Public Protection and Inspection Activities;
- Reduction in the number of careers (there are currently more than 1700 careers);
- As a consequence of the reduction in careers, there will be a reduction in salary scales, so a "career system" has been replaced by a "position system";
- There will be no more progressions based on seniority and promotions will rely on a performance assessment (based on merit);
- A performance related pay system was introduced.
