Despite being signed in 2003, the Convention on Social Security between Portugal and Angola never came into force, which will happen after the signing of a protocol that joined this Monday, in Lisbon, the Minister of Public Administration, Labor and Social Security from Angola, Jesus Maiato, and the Portuguese Minister of Labor, Solidarity and Social Security, Ana Mendes Godinho.
At the end of the ceremony, Jesus Maiato told the Lusa news agency that the agreement still has the purpose of "resuming a traditional relationship between the two ministries, which goes back to shortly after national independence".
"With this act we intend to resume this cooperative relationship in the fields of work, specifically in professional training, inspection and working conditions and work performance and in the field of social security", he said.
The protocol's main objective is, in the future, to “facilitate the movement of Angolan workers in Portugal and of Portuguese workers in Angola”.
“At the moment, the two countries have independent systems. They don't talk. Angolan workers in Portugal, if they are working here, follow the Portuguese social security legislation and this is where they have their benefits, but if they go to Angola they have nothing to do with social security in Angola”, he explained.
These are, therefore, “different systems”. The agreement now signed, aims to "regulate how these rights can be realized for the citizens of these countries".
The minister emphasizes that each benefit will have to be analyzed, since the range that exists in Portugal is currently much larger than that in Angola. "It is necessary to define the benefits attributed, the conditions of the benefits and the range of benefits that it will cover", he added.
For her part, the Minister of Labor, Solidarity and Social Security of Portugal, Ana Mendes Godinho, told Lusa that the agreement "identifies the areas of cooperation" that will be worked on.
“The agreement foresees that a work team will identify for 60 days the initiatives and projects that we are going to implement in 2010 - the agreement is to be in force between 2020 and 2022 - and allows us to kick-start the resumption of all cooperation in the area of Ministry of Labor and Social Security”, he said.
And he added: "Cooperation actions will be implemented under active employment and vocational training policies".
The minister stated that the implementation of the convention between the two countries covers the counting of the working time of displaced workers. “The objective is to implement the convention and make it happen. We are going to create technical standards for its implementation”, he said.
