The IL's legislative initiative, which amended the Blood Donor Statute, the Labour Code, and the General Law on Public Service Employment, received votes against from the PSD, CDS-PP, and PCP, abstentions from the PS, and votes in favour from the other parliamentary groups.

In practice, the bill stipulated that a worker would be entitled to an additional vacation day if they had made two donations per year and two additional vacation days if they had donated blood three or more times in a year.

The now-rejected bill from the liberal parliamentary group aimed to recognise and value the regularity of blood donation, citing the need to ensure the predictability and stability of reserves.

According to IL, this measure was not intended to reward a single isolated donation, but to encourage a sustained commitment to donating blood, given that Portugal has lost almost 10,000 donors since 2017.

Other measures approved

Despite rejecting IL's legislative initiative, the deputies approved five draft resolutions – initiatives without the force of law – presented by JPP, PCP, PSD, PAN and BE with several recommendations to the Government to promote measures that encourage blood donations.

Among the recommendations approved are the reinstatement of leave of absence for workers on the day they donate blood, without loss of rights, the strengthening of support for associations in this area and the resources of the Blood and Transplantation Institute, and the carrying out of public awareness campaigns for this practice.

There are no contraindications to donating blood for healthy adults, it is necessary to be over 18 years of age and weigh 50 kilos or more.