Working Time
Information from the EU on working hours in Portugal, with details on the working week, working Sundays and overtime...
The normal working period may not exceed eight hours per day or 40 hours per week. However, by means of a collective bargaining agreement the normal working hours can be increased by up to four hours per day, provided the working week does not exceed 60 hours. An individual arrangement may be made between the employee and the employer to increase daily working time by up to two hours, provided the average working week does not exceed 50 hours over a two-month period.
Break: the working day must be broken by a period of between one and two hours to avoid employees working for more than five hours in a row.
Daily rest: employees are guaranteed a minimum of 11 continuous hours of rest between two consecutive working days. This does not apply to activities characterised by the need to ensure continuous service or production, provided the corresponding time off in lieu is guaranteed (e.g.: hospitals, ports, airports, telecommunications, industries where continuous working is in operation, etc.).
Weekly rest period: by law, Sunday is the compulsory weekly rest day. In addition to this, another half or full day's rest may be granted (generally on a Saturday), which may be split or discontinuous.
Overtime: all work done outside normal working hours. Employees must work overtime unless they expressly request dispensation on justifiable grounds. Some categories of employees in a special situation are not obliged to work overtime. These categories include pregnant women or women with children under the age of 12, or employees with a reduced capacity for work, a disability or a chronic illness.
Overtime per employee is restricted to: two hours on any normal working day; a maximum of 150 hours a year in SMEs and large companies, or 175 hours a year in micro- and small enterprises; a maximum of 80 hours a year or the number of hours proportional to the corresponding full-time work for part-time employees, which can be extended to 200 hours a year under a collective bargaining regulation; a number of hours equal to normal daily working hours on a compulsory or additional weekly rest day or public holiday; a number of hours equal to half the normal daily working hours in a half-day additional rest period.
Overtime worked on a normal working day entitles employees to the following increases in pay: 50% of pay for the first hour; 75% for subsequent hours or part-hours. Overtime worked on a compulsory or additional weekly rest day or a public holiday entitles employees to an increase of 100% for each hour of work done.
Overtime on a working day, an additional weekly rest day or a public holiday also entitles employees to paid time off in lieu corresponding to 25% of the overtime hours worked. Overtime done on the compulsory weekly rest day entitles employees to one paid day off in lieu, to be taken in the following three working days.
Night work: work performed between 22:00 on one day and 07:00 on the following day. It lasts for a minimum of seven hours and a maximum of 11 hours, and includes the period between 0:00 and 05:00. Night work attracts an increase of 25% in relation to pay for equivalent work done during the day.
Shift work: this is deemed to be any means of organising work in teams, in which employees successively occupy the same workstations in rotation, either continuously or discontinuously. This means that individual workers may be working at different times during a given period of days or weeks. The duration of each shift may not exceed the maximum limits of normal working hours. Employees can only change shifts after a weekly rest day. Under the system of continuous working, shifts must be organised so that employees on each shift can have at least one day’s rest in each period of seven days, without prejudice to the extra rest period they may be entitled to.
Two new employment models were introduced in the new Labour Code of 2009, to bring in greater flexibility and adapt working times to the needs of employees and employees:
Banca de Horas [Time bank] (on the basis of a collective bargaining agreement). This allows normal working hours to be increased by a further four hours of paid work per day or up to 60 hours a week (up to a maximum of 200 hours a year), for pay, during busy periods of the year, offset by reducing working hours during less busy periods.
Horário Concentrado [Concentrated work schedule] (by individual agreement between employer and employee, or by means of a collective bargaining agreement). This involves concentrating the working week into a maximum of four days (by agreement between employee and employer) or three consecutive days of work (through a collective bargaining agreement), by increasing daily working hours by up to four hours.
Text last edited on: 08/2010