Portugal announced plans late Friday to cut 30,000 civil service jobs and raise the retirement age by one year to 66 as it tries to meet the terms of a bailout, in a bid to tighten their financial belt.
The country's Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho said the government said civil servants would be expected to work 40 hours per week instead of 35.
In a speech to the nation late on Friday, Coelho unveiled the contents of the center-right government's new "medium-term program," under which Portugal is hoping to save a total of six billion euros over the next three years. The decision on the new austerity measures was made in order to keep the small debt-ridden eurozone member eligible for another slice of its much-needed bailout.
The cuts hope to save a total of 6 billion euros ($7.9 billion) to 2016.
"To hesitate now would harm the credibility that we have already won back," Coelho stated, adding that the move was necessary to avoid a second bailout, according to Press TV.
"We will not raise taxes to correct the budgetary problem resulting from the Constitutional Court's decision," Mr Coelho said.
"The way must be through the structural reduction of public spending."
Portugal received a 78 billion euro rescue in 2011 after overspending, heavy debts and weak growth left it close to bankruptcy amid the eurozone's financial crisis.
The country is currently facing an unemployment rate of 17.5 percent, and the government predicts it will reach 18.5 percent next year.
