Working life in Portugal

Notes: * Provisional data. Values for real GDP per capita are chain-linked volumes (based on 2010 data; €). The unemployment rate for men and women is the annual average as a percentage of the active population aged 15–74 years, and the youth unemployment rate is the annual average as a percentage of people aged 15–24 years. The employment rate for men and women is the annual average as a percentage of the active population aged 15–64 years, and the youth employment rate is the annual average as a percentage of people aged 15–24 years. GDP, gross domestic product.

Source: Eurostat [sdg_08_10], for real GDP per capita and percentage change 2012–2022; [une_rt_a], for unemployment rate by sex and age; [lfsi_emp_a], for employment rate by sex and age.

Economic and labour market context

Between 2012 and 2022, Portugal’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 19.86%, which was a higher rate of growth than the EU average growth rate of 15.29% for the same period. In 2022, the unemployment rate in Portugal reached 6%; however, youth unemployment stood at 19%, 4.5 percentage points higher than the EU average (14.5%).

The female employment rate in 2022 stood at 74.4%, higher than the EU average of 69.5%. The total employment rate in 2022 was 76.4%, slightly above the EU average for the same year, which was 74.5%.

Legal context

The main pieces of legislation in force in Portugal that cover the employment relationship and industrial relations are the Labour Code (Código de Trabalho; Law 7/2009 of 12 February), which regulates the private sector, and the General Labour Law in Public Functions (Lei Geral do Trabalho em Funções Públicas; Law 35/2014 of 20 June), which regulates the public sector.

The 2009 Labour Code was subject to seven amendments between 2011 and 2014.

In the political cycle of 2015–2019, the Socialist Party (Partido Socialista, PS) government made a wide range of legislative changes. In 2017, Resolution 82/2017 established new rules on the extension of collective agreements, with the criteria of representativeness/representation of employer associations replaced with new criteria focusing on inclusiveness and a reduction of inequality. Also introduced in 2017, Law 73/2017 reinforced the legal framework regulating harassment at work in the private and public sectors. In 2018, Law 60/2018 introduced measures to promote the equality of remuneration between women and men, including regularly providing information on the differences in remuneration per company, occupation and qualification level, and transparency rules to prevent wage discrimination.

In 2018, Law 14/2018 established that, in the case of the transfer of a business or an establishment, the workers retain all contractual and acquired rights, namely remuneration, seniority, professional category and functional content, and social benefits. This legal regime was extended by Law 18/2021 to situations of transfer by adjudication of service provisions through public tender, direct agreement or any other means of selection, in both the public and the private sectors, namely the provision of surveillance, food, cleaning or transport services.

In 2019, Law 93/2019 introduced significant changes to the Labour Code (Campos Lima and Perísta, 2020; Campos Lima, 2021). This legislation introduced new rules to combat labour market segmentation, reducing the duration of fixed-term contracts to a maximum of two years and of three renewals; restricted their use to only temporary needs; and created an ‘additional contribution for excessive turnover’ to be applied to companies with an annual proportion of fixed-term contracts higher than the sector average turnover. However, two measures introduced by this law created potential risks of precariousness: (1) the extension of the trial period from 90 to 180 days for those seeking their first job and those in long-term unemployment when hired in open-ended contracts and (2) the extension of fixed-term contracts of very short duration from 15 to 35 days, allowing their use beyond agricultural and tourism activities. This legislation also introduced changes to the collective bargaining framework and working time regulation (see the section ‘Working time regulation’) (Campos Lima and Perísta, 2020; Campos Lima, 2021).

In 2021, a new phase of legislative change emerged, which came about as a result of the discussion in a green paper on the future of work (Moreira and Dray, 2022). Following this debate, the government presented a package of measures designated as the Agenda for Decent Work (Agenda do Trabalho Digno), which opened up a debate on new labour law reforms. The debate initiated in 2021 was interrupted by the general elections, but continued in 2022; only on 23 February 2023 did the Portuguese parliament approve the legislation (Portuguese government, 2023a; Portuguese parliament, 2023), and it came into force on 3 April 2023.

One of the topics addressed by the green paper was the regulation of telework. The urgent need to improve the legal framework, beyond temporary measures, in the context of widespread teleworking during the pandemic (Eurofound, 2021a, 2022) accelerated the amendment to the Labour Code on telework introduced by Law 83/2021, which came into force in January 2022. The new regime, introduced by this law, defines telework as the provision of work under the legal subordination of the worker to an employer in a location not determined by the latter, using information and communication technologies.

This amendment states that the favor laboratoris principle applies to ‘working conditions under the regime of telework’, preventing collective agreements and individual labour contracts from setting less favourable conditions than those set by the Labour Code (Article 3). The amendment also includes ‘working conditions under the regime of telework’ in the list of matters that must be regulated by collective agreements (Article 492). It strengthens the rights of workers with children and with informal care responsibilities to opt for telework (Article 166); expands the range of workers’ expenses that employers have to pay (Article 168); expands the protection of workers’ privacy, preventing the risk of hypervigilance (Article 170); ensures better conditions for workers’ connection with the company’s premises; and establishes the ‘employer obligation to abstain from contacting the worker outside the working time hours’ (dever de abstenção de contacto), a rule that applies not only to workers under the telework regime, but to all workers (Articles 169(B) and 199(A)). It also improves the regulations concerning workers’ rights to information, representation and participation and improves the conditions for their interaction with trade unions and workplace representative structures (Articles 169 and 465).

According to this amendment, the implementation of telework will always require a written agreement, either concomitant with the initial employment contract or independently of it (Article 166). The telework agreement defines the regime of permanence or alternation between periods of distance work and face-to-face work. It must mention the following aspects: the place where the employee will habitually carry out their work; the normal period of daily and weekly work; working hours; the contracted activity and corresponding category; the remuneration to which the employee will be entitled, including complementary and accessory benefits; the ownership of the work instruments and the person responsible for their installation and maintenance; and the frequency and manner of carrying out face-to-face contact. The teleworking agreement can be signed for a fixed or an indefinite duration. When it is for a fixed period, it cannot exceed six months, and it will automatically renew for equal periods if neither party revokes the agreement in writing up to 15 days before it is due to expire.

The new regime of telework extends some of the rules applying to telework under labour contracts (subordinate employment relationships) to those who are self-employed whenever they are considered to be economically dependent on the beneficiary of the activity (Article 165). These rules include those concerning the equipment and systems necessary to carry out the work and for worker–employment interactions (Article 168); the organisation, direction and control of work (Article 169(A)); any special obligations of employers and workers (Article 169(B)); the privacy of workers under the telework regime (Article 170); and health and security at work (Article 170(A)). Self-employed workers are considered to be economically dependent when 50% or more of their yearly income is paid by the same entity.

Industrial relations context

In Portugal, industrial relations democratic institutions emerged in the context of the revolutionary transition to democracy after 1974. After almost half a century of dictatorship and the longest authoritarian corporatism in Europe, the new democratic state played a major role in the 1970s in improving labour standards and in the configuration of the system of industrial relations. The political influence of trade union and employer confederations was strengthened by the institutionalisation of tripartite concertation, a process that started in 1984 and gained increasing relevancy (Campos Lima and Naumann, 2011). In the late 1980s and in the 1990s, tripartite social pacts played a central role in conditioning collective bargaining towards wage moderation, although the General Confederation of Portuguese Workers (Confederação Geral dos Trabalhadores Portugueses – Intersindical Nacional, CGTP-IN) – the most representative trade union confederation – did not sign them. In contrast, the General Union of Workers (União Geral de Trabalhadores, UGT) signed all of those social pacts.

The 2003 Labour Code (Law 99/2003 of 27 August), a centre–right government initiative, reversed the principle of favor laboratoris and introduced mechanisms to speed up the termination of collective agreements and reduce their period of validity after expiring. It paved the way for employers to withdraw unilaterally from existing collective agreements, but, due to loopholes in the law, this did not apply to some particularly important agreements. Collective bargaining entered into crisis in 2004, with a sharp decline in the renewals of collective agreements and in their coverage (only 600,000 workers).

During the PS government mandate (2005–2009), the recovery of collective bargaining was facilitated by a medium-term tripartite agreement in 2006 on the trajectory of the minimum wage signed by all social partners. By 2008, when the global financial crisis occurred, around 1,800,000 workers were covered by collective agreement renewals, representing around 65% of all employees (excluding public administration). The 2009 Labour Code (Law 7/2009 of 12 February), a socialist government initiative, introduced significant changes in the collective bargaining framework: it partially re-established the favor laboratoris principle, introduced the possibility of non-union negotiations at firm level based on a trade union mandate and further facilitated the unilateral ‘caducity’ of collective agreements and reduced their validity, removing the obstacles to withdrawal from agreements (Campos Lima, 2019).

The Memorandum of Understanding on Specific Economic Policy Conditionality, MoU, (in force between May 2011 and May 2014), imposed in Portugal various policy measures of extreme austerity and in-depth changes in labour market institutions and legal framework, as a condition for the financial bailout of the country (Costa and Caldas, 2013; Pedroso, 2014). The MOU was signed on 17 May 2011 by the Troika institutions – European Commission (EC), European Central Bank (ECB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) – and the interim government of the Socialist Party (PS). However, it was the government resulting from the following elections, the centre right coalition of the Social Democratic Party (Partido Social Democrata, PSD) and CDS – People’s Party (CDS – Partido Popular), in power since 21 June 2011, that was to implement the policy requirements of the Troika. The measures and legislation imposed in 2011–2014 during the centre–right coalition PSD/CDS in line with MoU (and beyond) reduced even more drastically the bargaining power of trade unions. Legislation gave more room for non-union representatives to negotiate at firm level. The period of survival of collective agreements was reduced even more, encouraging employers to withdraw unilaterally from existing agreements. Stricter conditions (based on the representativeness of employer organisations) were required for the extension of collective agreements. It became possible to proceed to the suspension (derogation) of collective agreements for companies in crisis. All of these changes combined with the economic crisis led to a dramatic decline in collective agreement renewals and in the number of workers covered, which reached the lowest historical levels in 2012, 2013 and 2014 (Campos Lima and Abrantes, 2016; Campos Lima, 2019).

Since 2015, there have been positive developments in economic growth and employment and a number of pro-labour and social measures have been introduced, including the regular increase of the minimum wage launched by the PS government in alliance with Portugal’s left-wing parties: the Left Bloc (Bloco de Esquerda, BE), the Communist Party (Partido Comunista, PCP) and the Ecologist Green Party (Partido Ecologista ‘Os Verdes’, PEV). All of this has contributed positively to industrial relations. These developments and new rules have facilitated the extension of collective agreements (see the section ‘Extension mechanisms’) and contributed to some recovery of collective bargaining, although collective bargaining has not returned to the levels observed before the global financial crisis. Tripartite concertation also regained importance through the tripartite agreements signed in 2016, 2017 and 2018, with the latter two encompassing a large range of measures.

Following the tripartite agreement on combating precarious work and labour market segmentation and promoting greater dynamism in collective bargaining signed in 2018, Law 93/2019 amending the Labour Code (which came into force on 1 October 2019) reconfigured the collective bargaining framework in relation to the expiry of collective agreements, although it did not reverse the possibility of unilateral caducity (see the section ‘Expiry of collective agreements’). In addition, it created a new challenge for collective bargaining by allowing ‘group working time accounts’ to be decided and implemented either by collective agreements or by company referenda organised by the employers (see the section ‘Working time regulation’).

Ongoing contentious issues remain in relation to labour legislation and the collective bargaining legal framework, which have been stressed by the CGTP-IN, the largest trade union confederation. In particular, the CGTP-IN claims that an in-depth revision of the legal framework of collective bargaining is required in order to fully re-establish the principle of favor laboratoris and to allow collective agreements to expire only following a joint decision of the signatory parties. So far, those claims have not resulted in a successful revision.

In the public sector, the PS government reversed nominal wage cuts and re-established the 35-hour week, turning the page on austerity, but no major outcomes in collective bargaining have been achieved in terms of wages (which have been frozen for almost a decade). The pressure from trade unions intensified in the final quarter of 2018 and during 2019, without success. Restrictions on public expenses have been playing an important role in the government’s justification of the deadlock.

The pandemic prompted the implementation of temporary measures that had the potential to have an impact on collective bargaining. In 2020, during the state of emergency, the right to strike was limited in essential sectors, including the health public service (Eurofound, 2021a); on the other hand, in 2021, the government responded to the critical situation as regards collective bargaining by suspending the deadlines concerning the survival and expiry of collective agreements for a period of 24 months (Law 11/2021 of 9 March 2021). The measure aimed to prevent the emergence of gaps in collective bargaining coverage (Eurofound, 2022).

The social dialogue agenda for 2021–2022 was very demanding in terms of the broad range of issues to be addressed by the government and the social partners in the framework of the Economic and Social Council (Conselho Económico e Social, CES) and the tripartite Social Concertation Standing Committee (Comissão Permanente de Concertação Social, CPCS). These included the discussion of the resilience and recovery plan (Ministry of Planning, 2021) and a debate on the green paper on the future of work (Moreira and Dray, 2022) and on the agenda for decent work. Furthermore, in 2022, the pressure induced by escalating inflation, in the context of the war in Ukraine, placed wage-setting policy at the centre of the debate. The government proposal for an agreement on competitiveness and incomes led to a tripartite medium-term agreement for improving income, wages and competitiveness for 2023–2026 (CES, 2022a), concluded on 9 October 2022, which was followed by a bipartite agreement between the government and public sector trade unions (Portuguese government, 2022), concluded on 24 October 2022 (see the section ‘Tripartite and bipartite bodies and concertation’).

Trade unions, employer organisations and public institutions play a key role in the governance of the employment relationship, working conditions and industrial relations structures. They are interlocking parts in a multilevel system of governance that includes European, national, sectoral, regional (provincial or local) and company levels. This section looks at the key players and institutions and their role in Portugal.

Public authorities involved in regulating working life

In Portugal, the Ministry of Labour, Solidarity, and Social Security (Ministério do Trabalho, Solidariedade e Segurança Social, MTSSS) approves and implements policies related to employment, vocational and qualification training, the labour market and industrial relations through the Directorate-General for Employment and Labour Relations (Direção-Geral do Emprego e das Relações de Trabalho, DGERT) and the Authority for Working Conditions (Autoridade para as Condições do Trabalho, ACT). DGERT is responsible for supporting the development of policies, legislation and regulations on employment and vocational training and on industrial relations, including working conditions and health, safety and well-being at work.

ACT is responsible for promoting improved working conditions by ensuring compliance with labour regulations and for promoting occupational risk prevention policies in public administration departments and bodies and in all sectors of activity.

Two other bodies are able to pursue inquiries in cases of occupational disease or other damage to health that occurred during work or that are related to work. The Social Security Institute (Instituto da Segurança Social), through the Protection against Occupational Risks Department (Departamento de Proteção Contra os Riscos Profissionais), is responsible for managing the treatment of and recovery from an illness or disability arising from occupational hazards. The Directorate-General of Health (Direção-Geral da Saúde, DGS) is one of the main stakeholders in the definition, promotion and enforcement of occupational health policy, through its Environmental and Occupational Health Division (Divisão de Saúde Ambiental e Ocupacional). The DGS is responsible for promoting the assessment of the relationships between work and health/ill health and evaluating the impact of work on health (disability and death). It is also responsible for supporting the development of policies, legislation, regulations, guidelines, and so on, on health surveillance.

Representativeness

Portuguese legislation does not provide rules regarding criteria for and mechanisms to assess the representativeness of trade unions and employer associations or regarding the implications of representativeness in social dialogue institutions and collective bargaining. All officially registered unions or employer associations are entitled to engage in collective bargaining. The critical aspect of collective bargaining in Portugal is mutual recognition.

The MoU (implemented in the period between May 2011 and May 2014) required that the extension of collective agreements should be based on representativeness, both of trade unions and of employer associations. The legal changes made by the centre right coalition PSD/CDS in 2012 and 2014 referred only to employer representativeness/representation. In the 2012 version, employers had to represent 50% of employment in the sector, which in many sectors is an impossible target. In the 2014 version, 30% of their membership had to be made up of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises for them to be allowed to extend the collective agreements.

These rules were withdrawn in 2017 for a number of reasons: the negative impact in collective bargaining as a result of reducing the number of extensions and the number of updated collective agreements, as well as their coverage; the weakness of employer associations as highlighted by the green paper on labour relations of 2016 (Dray, 2017), with only 19% of companies in Portugal in 2014 claiming to be affiliated to employer associations; and the fact that both employer confederations and trade union confederations were opposed to or reticent about the criteria for extension based on representativeness/representation. In May 2017, Resolution 82/2017 replaced the criteria of representativeness/representation of employer associations with new criteria for the extension of collective agreements: the effect on the wage bill and economic impacts, the level of the wage increase, the impact on the wage scale and on the reduction of inequality, the percentage of workers to be covered (in total and by gender) and the proportion of women that will benefit.

Trade unions

About trade union representation

The right to organise in a trade union (liberdade sindical) is guaranteed by the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic and by the Labour Code. Very few groups are excluded from this right, with only members of the armed forces and militarised security forces excluded.

Measuring trade union membership in Portugal is a particularly difficult task because most unions do not provide updated and accurate information. Since 2010, the annual mandatory survey for all companies in the market sector (Relatório Único; Ordinance 55/2010) has included a question for employers about the number of employees affiliated to trade unions. As highlighted in the green paper on labour relations of 2016, less than 4% of companies indicate that they have unionised workers, and the data on unionised workers point to a union density between 11% and 9% in 2010–2014. Furthermore, these data do not include the public sector, where trade union density is always much higher.

Published data (OECD, 2021) show that there was remarkable stability in union density in Portugal until 2011. According to this database, in 2011, the CGTP-IN comprised around 460,000 members, the UGT had around 193,000 members and independent unions comprised around 19,000 members and, in 2016 (the most recent data), the CGTP-IN comprised 400,000 members, the UGT had around 160,000 members and independent unions comprised 19,000 members. There is some discrepancy between these data and trade union confederations’ own assessments, in particular by the UGT. The CGTP-IN reported that it had lost almost 64,000 members between 2012 and 2016 (CGTP-IN, 2016), but that its membership had increased significantly in the following four years, namely by 132,541 (CGTP-IN, 2020; Porfírio, 2020; see also the CGTP-IN’s response to the questionnaire in Eurofound, 2014). The UGT reported that it had lost 20,000 members between 2012 and 2016 and 8,000 members between 2016 and 2010 (UGT, 2013, 2017; see also the UGT’s response to the questionnaire in Eurofound, 2014).

Trade union membership and density, 2011–2020

Notes: * Proportion of employees who are members of a trade union. ** Based on the annual mandatory survey sent to all companies in the market sector (Relatório Único), which includes a question for employers about the number of workers affiliated to trade unions at company level, which allows trade union density to be calculated (GEP/MTSSS, 2023, p. 17). *** Total number of trade (labour) union members (including self-employed workers and non-active union members, namely students, retirees or unemployed people) at national level. n.a., not available; OECD/AIAS ICTWSS, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development/Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies Institutional Characteristics of Trade Unions, Wage Setting, State Intervention and Social Pacts.

Main trade union confederations and federations

There are two trade union confederations (the CGTP-IN and the UGT) that have access to the body of tripartite social concertation at macro level (the CPCS).

Main trade union confederations and federations

During the past 20 years, the most comprehensive and profound restructuring among Portuguese unions was carried out by the Federation of Unions of Metal Chemical, Electric, Pharmaceutical, Paper, Printing, Energy and Mining Industries (Federação Intersindical das Indústrias Metalúrgicas, Químicas, Eléctricas, Farmacêutica, Celulose, Papel, Gráfica, Imprensa, Energia e Minas, FIEQUIMETAL). The process began in 1999 with the merger of the CGTP-IN’s metal and chemical and chemical workers’ federations and continued in 2007 with the integration of the electrical workers’ federation. In 2010, eight of FIEQUIMETAL’s member unions merged into four newly created regional unions covering several branches of manufacturing. In the same year, the national Union of Paper and Printing Workers (Sindicato dos Trabalhadores das Indústrias de Celulose, Papel, Gráfica e Imprensa) integrated itself into these four new organisations. FIEQUIMETAL now covers the following sectors: metal, chemical, electrical, pharmaceutical, paper and pulp, graphical, press, energy and mining.

Another important structuring process occurred in 2007 when the UGT’s three banking and two insurance unions created the National Union Federation of the Finance Sector (Federação Nacional do Sector Financeiro, FEBASE). During the same year, the CGTP-IN’s transport and communication unions founded the Union Federation of Transports and Communications (Federação dos Sindicatos de Transportes e Comunicações, FECTRANS). In contrast with FIEQUIMETAL, the creation of FEBASE and FECTRANS did not result in restructuring the member organisations.

Employer organisations

About employer representation

The Constitution guarantees the right to organise voluntarily and protects against any coercion to affiliate in an association, while the Labour Code specifies this right for employer organisations.

As regards the legal status of interest associations, there is an important distinction between the employer organisations that are recognised as social partners, on the one hand, and pure trade associations, on the other.

The main employer organisations that are represented in the most important cross-sectoral national institution for social dialogue, the CPCS, are the Entrepreneurial Confederation of Portugal (Confederação Empresarial de Portugal, CIP), the Portuguese Commerce and Services Confederation (Confederação do Comércio e Serviços de Portugal, CCP), the Confederation of Farmers of Portugal (Confederação dos Agricultores de Portugal) and the Confederation of Portuguese Tourism (Confederação do Turismo Português).

CIP was founded in 1974 as a result of the merger of the Confederation of Portuguese Industry (also CIP) with two large national entrepreneurial associations: the Association of Portuguese Industry (Associação Industrial Portuguesa) and the Portuguese Business Association, Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Associação Empresarial de Portugal, Câmara de Comércio e Indústria, AEP). With this merger, CIP consolidated its leading role on the side of employers.

On 18 May 2021, the National Council of Employer Confederations (Conselho Nacional das Confederações Patronais) was created. This platform assembles not only the four employer confederations represented at the tripartite CPCS but also the Portuguese Confederation of Construction and Real Estate (Confederação Portuguesa da Construção e do Imobiliário). This platform has allowed increased coordination between employer confederations.

There are no published membership data regarding employer organisations. However, the annual mandatory survey sent to all companies in the market sector (Relatório Único) includes a question for employers about their affiliation with employer associations and their number of employees, which allows an estimate to be made of the overall employer organisation density in terms of the percentage of companies that are affiliated (19.3% in 2012 and 13.3% in 2020 in the private sector) and in terms of active employees (38.2% in 2012 and 34.5% in 2020) (GEP/MTSSS, 2023, p. 17).

Employer organisation membership and density, 2012–2020

Note: * Percentage of employees working in an establishment that is a member of any employer organisation that is involved in collective bargaining. n.a., not available.

Main employer organisations

There are two main employer confederations (CIP and the CCP) covering more than one sector that have access to the body of tripartite social concertation at macro level (the CPCS).

Main employer organisations and confederations

Tripartite and bipartite bodies and concertation

The tripartite body for social concertation at macro level is the CPCS. It was created in 1984 and has put in place several agreements on income policies, setting reference values for the wage increases in collective bargaining. In 1990 and 1996, broad pacts covering a wide range of areas were signed. These agreements were signed by only one trade union confederation, the UGT; the CGTP-IN did not sign any of them.

In 1991, the first specific agreements were signed at the CPCS: one on health and safety in the workplace and the other on vocational education and training. The final broad agreement was signed in 1996 (which was also the final agreement containing guidelines for wage bargaining), after which this new type of specific agreement became the dominant means of social concertation until 2008 (Almeida et al, 2016; Campos Lima and Abrantes, 2016).

In the final quarter of 2014, with the signature of a tripartite agreement on the minimum wage increase, tripartite concertation regained importance. In the new political cycle that followed from the end of 2015, the PS government signed three tripartite agreements in 2016, 2017 and 2018 covering various issues.

In June 2018, the tripartite agreement on combating precarious work and labour market segmentation and promoting greater dynamism in collective bargaining introduced proposals to reinforce arbitration before the expiry of agreements, to protect workers’ acquired rights in some domains when collective agreements expire (see ‘Expiry of collective agreements’) and to extend the range of issues to which the favor laboratoris principle applies. At the same time, the tripartite agreement introduced new challenges regarding collective agreements and workplace decision-making on working time flexibility. The tripartite agreements of 2017 and 2018 were not signed by the CGTP-IN. Among the reasons not to sign was the CGTP-IN’s demand for an in-depth revision of the legal framework of collective bargaining in order to fully re-establish the principle of favor laboratoris and to allow collective agreements to expire only following a joint decision of the signatory parties.

In July 2021, the tripartite agreement on vocational training and qualifications was signed, an agreement that was in line with the goals of Portugal’s recovery and resilience plan for 2030. It integrated measures to reach the European target of, by 2030, 60% of adults between the ages of 25 and 64 undertaking lifelong learning actions every year.

In October 2022, the tripartite medium-term agreement for improving income, wages and competitiveness was signed, which set out measures and guidelines on wage policy developments for 2023–2026. One of the main purposes of this agreement is to increase the wage share of GDP by at least three percentage points, reaching 48.3% by 2026, to converge with the EU average. It establishes a target of increasing the average nominal wage by 20% between 2022 and 2026, that is, an average nominal wage rise of 4.8% per year until the end of 2026. The agreement includes incentives for employers, such as a 50% increase in employer’s tax deductions in return for salary increases for companies complying with at least one of the following conditions: having signed or renewed collective agreements, having increased wages annually in line with the goals set out in the tripartite agreement or having reduced the difference between the top 10% (i.e. highest paid) and bottom 10% (i.e. lowest paid) of jobs. This agreement was signed by the government and all of the social partners represented by the CPCS apart from the CGTP-IN. This trade union confederation argued that the nominal wage increases set out in the agreement did not compensate for inflation (past and future) and was opposed to the fiscal bonus offered to employers (Eurofound, 2023).

Main tripartite and bipartite bodies

Workplace-level employee representation

The rights of works councils (comissões de trabalhadores) and trade union organisations at company level are guaranteed by the Constitution and regulated by the Labour Code.

The competencies of works councils are largely limited to information and consultation. In 2009, it was made legally possible for unions to delegate their ability to sign collective agreements to works councils, and this was extended in 2012, but it has not been used in practice.

Unions have the exclusive right to sign legally binding collective agreements and to call for strikes. Union structures at company level (delegates or committees) are involved in collective bargaining if the trade union board wants to be. It is the board that makes the decisions in relation to the negotiations.

Data from the European Company Survey confirm the findings of a survey in the 1990s: the trade union delegates are the most numerous bodies (in terms of establishments and employees covered).

The amendment of the Labour Code concerning telework (Law 83/2021, Article 169) includes the right of teleworkers to access information provided by worker representative structures. It specifies the following rights: the right to participate in person in meetings taking place at the company called by unions or works councils, the right to be integrated in the number of employees of the company for all purposes relating to collective representation structures and to be a candidate for these structures, and the right to use information and communication technologies in his or her work to participate in meetings promoted by worker representatives. On the other hand, worker representative structures may use the technologies referred to communicate with teleworkers, and they have the right to post notices, communications, information or other text relating to union life and the socio-professional interests of workers, as well as to distribute such information via email to all teleworkers, based on a list provided by the employer (Article 465(2)).

Regulation, composition and competencies of the bodies

The central concern of employment relations is the collective governance of work and employment. This section looks at collective bargaining in Portugal.

Bargaining system

Collective agreements are published in the MTSSS’s official bulletin and are legally binding. There are no collective agreements on wages in public administration. The peak of the economic and social crisis in Portugal, in 2011–2013, combined with the introduction of stricter criteria to extend the agreements (2012 and 2014) that were implemented under the MoU (2011–2014) resulted in a collapse of collective bargaining at all levels – although the greatest impact was felt in sector-level multi-employer bargaining – while the intended decentralisation did not take place. Although the number of company agreements as a percentage of total agreements increased, this was more the result of the fall in sector-level agreements than of an increase in company bargaining. In 2016, company agreements represented 39.6% of all collective agreements signed, while in 2018 they represented 44.5% and in 2021 they represented 52%. However, between 2016 and 2021, the proportion of workers covered by the company agreements in force represented only 3.5% to 5.0% of collective bargaining coverage (DGERT/MTSSS, 2022; GEP/MTSSS, 2022d; 2023).

Wage bargaining coverage

Overall, the coverage of the collective agreements in force has slightly declined over the years. The most recent edition (2021) of the government survey Quadros de Pessoal (Personal Records) found that the total coverage of all legally existing agreements for the whole economy (with the exception of public administration) was 86.2% compared with 91.4% in 2011. This ‘accumulated coverage rate’ includes a number of agreements that have not been reviewed for many years (DGERT/MTSSS, 2022; GEP/MTSSS, 2022d).

Following the legal changes to the collective bargaining legal framework as required by the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund (which together are known as the Troika), there was a dramatic decline in the level of renewals of collective agreements. Coverage dropped from around 1,242,000 workers in 2011, that is, around 53% of all employees covered by agreements in the market sector, to unprecedented levels of 19% in 2012 and around 11% in 2013 and 2014. Since 2015, a slow process of recovery has been underway, with an increase seen in the proportion of workers covered by collective agreements that were reviewed or newly published: from 568,000 (25%) in 2015 to 994,000 (40%) in 2018 and 883,000 (35%) in 2019. Nevertheless, this coverage did not reach the levels observed before the global economic crisis, when 1,895,000 employees were covered by renewals of collective agreements, representing 65% of all workers covered by agreements (Campos Lima, 2017, 2019). The number of employees covered by renewals of collective agreements dropped sharply in 2020, the first year of the pandemic, to 488,000. In 2021, there was a slight recovery: 636,000 workers were covered by renewals of agreements, that is, 26% of the collective bargaining coverage. With this being the situation on the eve of the escalation of inflation, it put additional pressure on collective bargaining, leading to an increase in the number of workers covered by collective agreement updates, reaching around 711,000 in 2022 (DGERT/MTSSS, 2022, 2023; GEP/MTSSS, 2022).

Collective wage bargaining coverage of employees from different sources

Notes: * Percentage of employees working in local units where more than 50% of the employees are covered under a collective pay agreement against the total number of employees who participated in the survey.

Sources: Eurofound, European Company Survey 2013 and 2019 (including private sector companies with establishments with >10 employees (Nomenclature of Economic Activities (NACE) codes B–S), with multiple answers possible); Eurostat [earn_ses10_01], [earn_ses14_01], [earn_ses18_01], Structure of Earnings Survey 2010, 2014 and 2018 (including companies with >10 employees (NACE codes B–S, excluding O), with a single answer for each local unit). For more information on the methodology, see DGERT/MTSSS (2012–2023) and OECD (2021).

Collective bargaining coverage – national data, 2011–2021

Bargaining levels

Since the creation of the Portuguese collective bargaining system in the 1970s–1980s, the most important level of bargaining by far has been sector or branch level. The agreements at this level cover more than 90% of the total workforce that can potentially be covered by all levels of collective bargaining. There are no collective agreements at cross-sector level. Bargaining at company level is important in some sectors (such as in public utilities). In practice, there is no decentralisation in collective bargaining in Portugal.

Levels of collective bargaining, 2022

Articulation

Until 2009, company agreements could be signed only by trade unions. Since 2009, company bargaining has also been able to be conducted by non-union bodies in companies with more than 500 employees and, since 2012, in companies with more than 150 employees, although still under the delegation of trade unions (Labour Code, Article 491(3), with the changes introduced by Law 23/2012). However, agreements of this particular type have not been signed since the possibility was established, as documented in the green paper on labour relations of 2016 (Dray, 2017). Moreover, there is no significant articulation between bargaining levels, as far as company agreements are not subordinated to the framework of sector agreements. For instance, it is possible that the trade union that signs a given company agreement is not the same trade union that signed the sector agreement in force. Competition between unions (affiliated to the CGTP-IN, the UGT or an independent union) and expiry of sector collective agreements contribute to that possibility. On the other hand, Law 23/2012 made it possible for collective agreements to include clauses of articulation between levels, but very few agreements signed since then have included such a type of clause (CRL/MTSSS, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021).

Timing of the bargaining rounds

The period between the signature of an agreement and its publication in the official bulletin of the MTSSS (Boletim do Trabalho e Emprego, BTE) may vary from a few weeks to a few months.

There are large variations in the duration of bargaining rounds between sectors and years. This is another source of difficulty in determining the time of year when bargaining rounds usually take place.

The present crisis in bargaining and the resulting low numbers of agreements do not allow significant patterns of timing to be identified, as was possible to do before the crisis.

In general, bargaining rounds take place on a yearly basis, in connection with wage bargaining.

Coordination

Trade union confederations follow up on sector bargaining and provide some guidance, but it is at the sector or federation level that coordination with lower-level units takes place. High-level employers implicitly coordinate changes among their lower-level affiliates. During the first decade of tripartite concertation at macro level (1987–1997), wage bargaining coordination took the form of tripartite macro agreements on income policies (Campos Lima and Naumann, 2011). Non-binding tripartite agreements on the increase of the national minimum wage may have an influence on collective bargaining outcomes because they put pressure on the lower wages of the existing wage tables. This occurred during 2008–2010 and has also been occurring more recently, since 2015, because the national minimum wage after the increases exceeded the level of the lowest wage groups of many collective agreements. Recent studies highlighted this link between minimum wage policies and collective bargaining developments (GEP/MTSSS, 2019b; Martins, 2019; Campos Lima et al, 2021).

Extension mechanisms

Collective agreements can be extended by a decree issued by the MTSSS. Until the economic crisis, this was a pervasive practice in many sectors. The 2011 MoU required that the extension of collective agreements should be based on representativeness, both of trade unions and of employer associations. The legal changes in 2012 and in 2014 referred only to employer representativeness/representation. In the 2012 version, they had to represent 50% of employment in the sector, which in many sectors is an impossible target. In the 2014 version, 30% of their membership had to be made up of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises for them to be allowed to extend the collective agreements.

These rules were withdrawn in 2017 for a number of reasons: the negative impact on collective bargaining as a result of reducing the number of extensions and the number of updated collective agreements, as well as their coverage; the weakness of employer associations as highlighted by the green paper on labour relations of 2016 (Dray, 2017), with only 19% of the companies in Portugal in 2014 claiming to be affiliated to employer associations; and the fact that both employer confederations and trade union confederations were opposed to or reticent about the criteria for extension based on representativeness/representation. In May 2017, Resolution 82/2017 replaced the criteria of representativeness/representation of employer associations with new criteria for the extension of collective agreements: the effect on the wage bill and economic impacts, the level of the wage increase, the impact on the wage scale and on the reduction of inequality, the percentage of workers to be covered (in total and by gender) and the proportion of women that will benefit.

Derogation mechanisms

Law 23/2012 established the possibility of ‘open clauses’ by allowing collective agreements to specify that rules on geographical mobility, working time and wages can be set by agreements at another level (as required by the Troika MoU). However, no cases have been reported of agreements including this type of clause (CRL/MTSSS, 2016; GEP/MTSSS, 2017).

Derogations in a strict sense were not possible until recently, but this changed in August 2014. The seventh revision of the Labour Code introduced the possibility of temporarily suspending collective agreements in the case of a severe crisis that ‘gravely effects the normal activity of the company’. The suspension is possible only if the employer organisation(s) and trade union(s) sign a written agreement for that purpose.

Expiry of collective agreements

The 2003 Labour Code introduced mechanisms to speed up the termination of collective agreements and reduce their period of validity after expiring. In addition, the 2009 Labour Code facilitated unilateral ‘caducity’ of collective agreements and reduced their survival period. In line with Troika MoU requirements, legislation in 2014 further reduced the period of validity and survival period. Expiration becomes effective if one of the signing parties officially ‘denounces’ the agreement, thus triggering the process of caducity. This process takes at least 14 months (starting on the date of denunciation) for the agreement to be effectively cancelled. The employees who were covered by the agreement before its caducity individually keep a set of rights stipulated in the agreement, such as their remuneration, category/function, working time and social protection. The employer associations have been the main proponents of the unilateral requirements for the caducity of agreements. The legal measures have undermined union power and the quality and balance of collective bargaining in a number of sectors.

The tripartite commitment for a mid-term concertation agreement signed in January 2017 comprised a bipartite agreement between employer confederations and trade union confederations to suspend any requests for caducity for 18 months. While this initiative might have helped the recovery of collective bargaining, it was not a long-term solution, as the measure was temporary. The CGTP-IN has been calling for revision of the legal framework in order to re-establish the principle that a collective agreement can expire only when both signatory parties agree to do so, a principle that has been entrenched in the collective bargaining system since 2003.

Law 93/2019 amending the Labour Code, following the 2018 tripartite agreement, did not reverse the possibility of unilateral caducity of collective agreements. However, it introduced various mitigation measures, such as an obligation for the written request for the expiry of a collective agreement to state the economic and structural reasons or maladjustment of the collective agreement (Article 500), a strengthening of the role of the CES in relation to arbitration and mediation to prevent the expiry of agreements (Article 501(A)), and an extension of the range of rights that workers keep when collective agreements expire including occupational health and safety and parental rights (Article 501(8)). On the other hand, this law added the possibility of the expiry of collective agreements in the case of the extinction a signatory organisation, trade union or employer association (Article 502(1)(b)), a measure which generated controversy and is under examination by the Constitutional Court – arguing that this provision undermines the constitutional rights of collective bargaining, the left-wing parties BE, PCP and PEV, on 23 September 2019, requested that the Constitutional Court examine this provision. This examination has not yet been concluded.

In March 2021, in response to the collective bargaining crisis in 2020, in the context of the pandemic, the government suspended the deadlines concerning the expiry of collective agreements for a period of 24 months (Law 11/2021) to prevent the erosion of collective bargaining coverage (Eurofound, 2022).

Peace clauses

According to the Labour Code (Article 542), collective agreements can include rules on peace clauses that determine industrial peace during the validity of a collective agreement, but peace clauses in collective agreements are extremely rare.

Other aspects of working life addressed in collective agreements

Collective agreements encompass a large number of issues but, in the last few years, collective bargaining has prioritised wage bargaining and working time flexibility. Regulations on working time accounts (banco de horas) and other forms of working time flexibility have been addressed in a number of collective agreements (CRL/MTSSS, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019). Recent reports also highlighted provisions concerning the challenges of the digital economy (Ramalho, 2019).

Legal aspects

In Portugal, strikes are the most widely used form of industrial action by far. The right to strike has been guaranteed by the Constitution since 1976, which establishes that the workers themselves have the responsibility of defining the scope of the interests to be defended by means of strike action, and that this scope may not be restricted by the law. In parallel with establishing the right to strike, it prohibits the use of lockouts. Other forms of industrial dispute, such as sit-ins and other disruptive actions, were relevant during the revolutionary period (1974–1975) and its aftermath, but they do not occur any longer. An exception may be when workers at a factory that is closing try to stop the withdrawal of equipment and material from the establishment in order to avoid their sale before the company has paid its debt to the dismissed workforce.

Different forms of industrial action between 2010 and 2019

Note: * Percentage of private sector establishments reporting any form of industrial action during the indicated period.

Source: European Company Survey 2019.

Developments in industrial actions, 2012–2021

Sources: GEE/MTSSS (2014a, 2014b), GEP/MTSSS (2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019a, 2021a, 2022a, 2022b).

Dispute resolution mechanisms

Collective dispute resolution mechanisms

The Labour Code regulates the following collective dispute resolution mechanisms.

• Conciliation and mediation (Labour Code, Articles 523–528): Conciliation may be initiated at the request of one or both parties of the conflict. The process is normally carried out at the responsible service of the MTSSS. The parties are obliged to attend the conciliation meetings, but the success of the process depends entirely on their will. If the conciliation fails, it may be transformed into mediation. Mediation may be initiated at the request of one or both parties of the conflict. The mediator is appointed by the MTSSS. He or she presents a compromise for the resolution of the conflict. The parties are obliged to attend the mediation meetings, but the success of the process depends entirely on their will.
• Voluntary arbitration (Labour Code, Articles 506–507): The parties involved in the negotiation of a collective agreement may initiate a process of voluntary arbitration at any time during the conflict. The arbitrating body comprises one representative from each side of the conflict (employers and trade unions) and a third member who is chosen by the two representatives. The parties involved are obliged to inform the MTSSS about the beginning and the conclusion of the process.
• Mandatory arbitration (Labour Code, Articles 508–509): Mandatory arbitration may take place if all previous steps of negotiation and conciliation in relation to a collective agreement (conciliation, mediation and voluntary arbitration) have failed and if the majority of social partners represented at the CPCS recommend it. In the case of risks to the life, health or security of citizens, the MTSSS may unilaterally initiate the mandatory arbitration (after consultation with the CPCS). In the case of the negotiation of a completely new agreement, one of the parties may request mandatory arbitration if the other party has brought all previous steps of negotiation and conciliation to failure. The MTSSS decides on the execution of a mandatory arbitration, taking into consideration (1) the number of workers affected by the conflict, (2) the relevance of social protection of the workers covered, (3) the social and economic impact of the conflict and (4) the position of the parties involved regarding the object of the arbitration. After consultation of the parties involved and the regulating or supervising body of the respective sector, the MTSSS unilaterally determines the decision regarding the arbitration.
• Necessary arbitration (Labour Code, Articles 510–511): If a collective agreement expires and is not substituted by another agreement during the 12 months (covering at least 50% of the respective workforce), the MTSSS may initiate the process of a necessary arbitration (which is regulated by a specific decree-law). This type of arbitration is designed to be triggered in the course of the expiration of a collective agreement. In the case of a strike in a sector or institution that provides indispensable services for the population, the respective trade union is obliged to present in its prior notice of the strike submitted to the MTSSS a proposal for ‘minimum services’. If the parties involved do not come to a common solution, an arbitration takes place at the CES (Labour Code, Articles 534, 537–538).

Individual dispute resolution mechanisms

The Labour Code (Article 492(2)(f)) stipulates that collective agreements must regulate conflicts regarding employment contracts, ‘namely by conciliation, mediation and arbitration’. It seems that the most important collective agreements revised since 2009 (textiles, clothing, shoes, metal, construction and commerce) do not make use of this legal possibility to regulate the resolution of individual conflicts.

In the case of disciplinary measures against an individual worker and in the case of dismissal, the respective works council and trade union organisations must be informed (Labour Code, Articles 353, 356–357). In the case of the dismissal of a worker resulting from the extinction of the workplace or because of ‘inadaptation’ of the worker to the demands of his or her job, the respective works council and trade union organisations must be informed and consulted (Labour Code, Articles 370, 375, 377–378).

The Labour Code (Article 387) states that the legality and admissibility of a dismissal can be judged only by a legal court.

The most common forms of collective dispute resolution in Portugal in relation to collective bargaining are conciliation and mediation. Arbitration is extremely rare. The annual report on collective bargaining for 2015, 2017 and 2019 (CRL/MTSSS, 2016, 2018, 2020) examined the trends observed in 2005–2018, concluding that the most common and most successful form of dispute resolution has been conciliation. Mediation has been less frequent and with more limited results. Between 2005 and 2018, only one decision based on voluntary arbitration was published and three processes of compulsory arbitration were concluded. The last two years there was nothing to add. As regards the necessary arbitration, there was not a single case concluded in the last decade, although in 2018 there was one request.

Use of dispute resolution mechanisms, 2012–2021

Note: * Number of yearly requests.

Source: CRL/MTSSS (2016, 2018, 2021); DGERT/BTE online.

‘Individual employment relations’ refers to the relationship between the individual worker and their employer. This relationship is shaped by legal regulation and by the outcomes of social partner negotiations over terms and conditions. This section looks at the start and termination of the employment relationship and entitlements and obligations in Portugal.

Start and termination of the employment relationship

Requirements regarding an employment contract

According to the Labour Code (Article 68(2)), the minimum working age is 16 years. A person younger than 16 who has completed compulsory education may be hired for ‘soft jobs’ (jobs that include light tasks and do not require much physical and mental effort) (Article 68(3)), or, in a family company, a person younger than 16 may work under the direct supervision of an adult family member (Article 68(4)). In any case, the employer must inform the inspecting authority about the hiring of a person younger than 16 within eight days (Article 68(5)).

The Labour Code (Article 141) requires that employment contracts in a written form should include the following information:

• identification of the employer and the employee
• the workplace
• daily and weekly working hours
• the date of the contract and the date of its entry into force
• the functions to be performed by the employee
• the amount of the basic wage and other remuneration
• a definition of the notice period in the case of termination of the contract

‘Contracts of very short duration’ that are not in a written form must still be communicated by the employer to the social security service, namely using an electronic form including the above-mentioned information (Labour Code, Article 142). In general, there is no time frame for signing the contract. The Labour Code protects workers who do not have clear contractual situations. A worker who does not have a written and signed contract may be considered a permanent worker.

Dismissal and termination procedures

According to the Labour Code (Article 340), an employment contract may be terminated due to expiration, revocation, denunciation or termination. The dismissal modalities include:

• dismissal with fault attributable to the employee
• collective dismissal
• dismissal due to the extinction of the job position
• dismissal due to unsuitability

Dismissal of the employee without just cause or for political or ideological reasons is forbidden.

The employer must inform the employee of the notice period for termination of the employment contract.

Entitlements and obligations

Parental, maternity and paternity leave

Parental leave is regulated under the regime of initial parental leave (subsidio parental inicial), which includes provisions for both parents and exclusively for the mother and for the father (Decree Law 91/2009 of 9 April, Articles 11–15).

Statutory leave arrangements

Sick leave

The right to paid sick leave is granted by law (Decree Law 28/2004 of 4 February, with the changes introduced by Decree Law 146/2005 of 26 August, Decree Law 302/2009 of 22 October, Law 28/2011 of 16 June, Decree Law 133/2012 of 27 June and Decree Law 53/2018 of 2 July) to all people in employment (employees and those who are self-employed) and employees who are temporarily incapable of work owing to an occupational disease or an accident at work.

To qualify for paid sick leave, employees working under a labour contract must have made contributions to the social security system (or other similar system) for at least six months (consecutive or not) and must have worked at least 12 days of the first four months of the last six months before the sickness. However, this condition does not apply to self-employed workers or to seafarers covered by the voluntary social security scheme: these workers must have paid their social security contributions up to the end of the third month preceding the onset of incapacity.

The benefit is payable from the fourth day of the incapacity to work onwards (there is an unpaid three-day waiting period) in the case of employees, from the 11th day of the incapacity to work onwards (unpaid 10-day waiting period) in the case of self-employed workers and from the 31st day of the incapacity to work onwards for the beneficiaries covered by the voluntary social security scheme.

No waiting period is applicable in the case of (1) tuberculosis, (2) hospitalisation or outpatient surgery treatment in a duly authorised establishment and (3) sickness initiated during the entitlement period to the parental benefit and extending beyond this period.

This payment is granted by the state through social security. The amount of this allowance is calculated as a percentage of the worker’s salary (this salary is determined by taking into account the average salary of the first six months of the latest eight months before the sickness, Christmas and holiday allowances excluded), but this percentage varies according to the duration of the leave and to the nature of the sickness.

The amount of the average daily pay covered by sickness allowance varies according to the duration of the incapacity to work: 55% for up to 30 days, 60% for 31–90 days, 70% for 91–365 days and 75% for more than 365 days.

The minimum rate of benefits payable is set at 30% of the daily amount of the social support index (€443.20 in 2022). When the person’s reference income is lower than the social support index, the sickness benefit will be equal to the reference income. The benefits cannot exceed the reference income. The employment relationship may be terminated while the employee is on sick leave (Labour Code).

Retirement age

Ordinance 53/2021 of 10 March established that the normal age of entitlement to the old-age pension in 2022 is 66 years and 7 months.

Early retirement can be claimed if the insured person is at least 60 years of age and has made contributions for 40 years, without the application of the sustainability factor. Early retirement is penalised according to the rate established by Decree Law 187/2007 of 10 May, amended by Decree Law 16-A/2021 of 25 February: 0.5% per month before the age of access to the pension.

It is not possible for a person to access their pension before the age of 60 years. The personal age of access to the old-age pension is reduced by four months for each civil year of contributions an individual has made above the 40-year requirement; however, this reduction cannot lead to access to the old-age pension before reaching 60 years of age. Additionally, the sustainability factor is not included in the calculation of the old-age pension age as part of the flexibility scheme. In such cases, the beneficiaries are not double penalised.

There is a special pathway to retirement for older workers in long-term unemployment. If unemployment occurs after the age of 57 years, retirement is allowed, without penalties, at the age of 62. If unemployment occurs between the ages of 52 and 56 years, retirement is allowed, with penalties, at the age of 57. In the latter case, the qualifying period is increased from 15 to 22 years of insurance.

There are special retirement conditions for people with arduous jobs, such as miners, seafarers in fisheries, maritime workers of the merchant navy, coastal navigation and coastal fishery workers, air traffic controllers, professional classical and contemporary dancers and embroiderers from Madeira. These professionals may request early retirement within the specific conditions set up for each activity as regards age and contributory records, but they always have to comply with the 15-year (successive or not) record of contributions to social security and to any other social protection scheme that entitles them to a retirement pension.

For workers, pay is a reward for their work and their main source of income; for employers, it is a cost of production and a focus of bargaining and legislation. This section looks at minimum wage setting in Portugal.

According to the most recent International Labour Organization (ILO) report on Portugal (ILO, 2018), real average wages (using data from the Quadros de Pessoal and the CPI) increased by 12% between 2002 and 2012, before sliding back as Portugal entered into turbulence. The years of the Troika intervention (2011–2014) – with the dramatic blockade of collective bargaining and extensions and the freezing of the minimum wage – contributed to this sliding back.

Pay developments in recent years have been influenced by the new political cycle and the measures implemented to aid in the recovery, in particular the trajectory of the minimum wage increase and the dynamic approach taken to collective bargaining. As highlighted by the ILO, the recovery in the private sector started in 2015. On the other hand, a study examining the evolution of the average wages for the whole economy, using information provided by National Institute of Statistics (Instituto Nacional de Estatística) on the basis of administrative data (from the social security system), showed that the inversion of the trend of declining wages (regular gross remuneration excluding Christmas and holiday bonuses) occurred at the end of 2017, with wages increasing until September 2019, when the annual wage increase was 2.8% in nominal terms and 3% in real terms (Caldas, 2019).

The pandemic and the escalation of inflation altered this trajectory. Recent studies have warned about the negative impacts of wage devaluation. Real wages rapidly began to decrease with the inflationary surge that began in 2021, which escalated and rapidly eroded a large part of the real wage gains registered in Portugal from 2018 onwards (Cantante and Estevão, 2022).

Monthly average basic nominal wages per worker (€), 2019–2021

Source: Quadros de Pessoal 2020, 2021 and 2022 (GEP/MTSSS, 2022c, 2022d, 2023b).

Minimum wages

The statutory minimum wage was created during the democratic revolution of 1974. It is set by the government after consultation with the social partners. There are no fixed rules or permanent expert committees. Until 2011, the increases usually took place at the start of every year.

In 2006, a tripartite agreement was signed at the CPCS (by the government and all union and employer confederations) stipulating that the minimum wage would be increased until 2011 at a pace that was faster than the increase of collectively agreed wages. The aim was to reach €500 per month in 2011, but the escalation of the economic crisis and the Troika MoU requirements stopped the process at €485 (2011). The government subsequently imposed a freeze on the minimum wage for three years. No other agreements were made until 2014, when a tripartite agreement was signed at the CPCS to increase the minimum wage for 2015 to €505. In the new political cycle, two tripartite agreements were signed regarding the conditions of implementation of the minimum wage, with a trajectory of €530 for 2016 and €557 for 2017. It is relevant to note that the trajectory for the minimum wage to reach €600 in 2019 was part of the parliamentary deals with the left-wing parties, that is, it was one of the conditions these parties put forward to support the PS government (GEP/MTSSS, 2019b; Martins, 2019). During the pandemic, this trajectory continued, with the trajectory for the minimum wage increasing by 5.8% to €635 in 2020 and by 4.7% to €665 in 2021. The increases in 2022 and 2023 of 6.0% and 7.8%, respectively, were the highest increases seen since 2014. However, in 2022, the trajectory of the real minimum wage increase was reversed the first time in nine years: the 6.0% increase in nominal terms was represented by a loss in real terms of between 1.4% and 1.7%.

Working time is ‘any period during which the worker is working, at the employer’s disposal and carrying out his activity or duties, in accordance with national laws and/or practice’ (Directive 2003/88/EC). This section briefly summarises the regulation of and issues regarding working time, overtime, part-time work and working time flexibility in Portugal.

Working time regulation

Working time is regulated by the Labour Code, by collective bargaining and by employers at company level.

The Labour Code sets the general framework by defining basic notions; by setting certain limits, such as for regular weekly working time and possible deviations from it, which may result from regulations regarding flexibility (working time accounts); and by regulating different types of flexible working time arrangements.

Collective agreements at branch, professional or company level may regulate the working time at those levels within the stipulations of the Labour Code. There is no articulation between the different levels of collective bargaining.

Employers regulate working time in their companies within the stipulations of the Labour Code and the collective agreement in question (if there is one). In 2009, the Labour Code introduced working time accounts (banco de horas), making their implementation in companies dependent on their regulation by collective agreement. However, in 2012, the Labour Code introduced the possibility of ‘individual working time accounts’, which allowed the normal working period to be increased up to two hours per day and 50 hours per week, with a limit of 150 hours per year, based on individual negotiations between the employer and the employee, without the mediation of unions or employee representatives, which could bypass the provisions of sector collective agreements.

Law 93/2019 amending the Labour Code, which came into force on 1 October 2019, eliminated the regime of ‘individual working time accounts’, but provided for a transition period of one year, until October 2020, during which this regime still could apply. At the same time, this amendment introduced the regime of ‘group working time accounts’ (banco de horas grupal; Article 208(B)). This new regime can be implemented in two ways: by collective agreements or at company level, with the latter requiring approval by the workers on the basis of ‘referendums’ organised by the employer, applying to all workers in a team, section or economic unit. The works councils (comissões de trabalhadores) and the trade union delegates at company level simply serve a surveillance role in the referendum process. In the absence of representatives (which is the case in the large majority of Portuguese companies), the workers can designate a representative commission with a maximum of three or five members. The labour inspectorate plays a surveillance role in the referendum process in the case of companies with fewer than 10 workers without worker representatives.

Overtime regulation

Overtime is regulated by the Labour Code, by collective bargaining and by employers at company level.

The Labour Code sets the general framework by defining basic notions and by setting certain limits, for example the maximum number of overtime hours per year and per day.

Collective agreements at branch, professional or company level may regulate overtime at those levels within the stipulations of the Labour Code, namely by defining more favourable provisions concerning overtime limits and forms of compensation including overtime payment. There is no articulation between the different levels of collective bargaining.

Employers regulate overtime in their companies within the stipulations of the Labour Code and the collective agreement in question (if there is one).

The amendments made in 2012 to the Labour Code reduced by half the payment for overtime and suspended for two years collective bargaining provisions that were more favourable to workers. The overtime payment reduction is still in place but collective agreements may set more favourable rules.

Part-time work

According to the Labour Code, a part-time worker is an employed person whose normal working hours are less than the normal working hours prevailing in the enterprise/institution for the professional category or occupation in question. In 2021, 6.7% of the Portuguese workforce had a part-time job, which was 10.5 percentage points lower than the EU average. Part-time work is more evident among Portuguese female workers than male workers. Although the difference has been decreasing over the years, the percentage of female workers working part time is still considerably higher than that of male workers.

People employed part time in Portugal and the EU27, 2016–2021 (% of total employment)

Source: Eurostat [lfsi_pt_a], Labour Force Survey – people employed part time (20 to 64 years of age), total and by sex.

Night work

According to the Labour Code (Article 223), ‘night work’ refers to a working period with a minimum duration of seven hours and a maximum duration of 11 hours that includes the time range between midnight and 05:00 during the period between 22:00 of one day and 07:00 of the next day, unless provided otherwise by a collective agreement instrument.

Shift work

‘Shift work’ (Labour Code, Article 220) refers to work that is performed in daily and successive, continuous or discontinuous periods in which the workers change periodically and regularly from one working schedule to the subsequent one, according to a pre-established scale.

Weekend work

The Labour Code (Article 232), as regards weekly rest, establishes that the worker has the right to at least one day of rest per week. The mandatory weekly day of rest can be on a day other than Sunday if the employee works in one of the following: a company or business sector that is exempted from closing or suspending operations for one full day a week or that is required to close or suspend operations on a day other than Sunday, a company or the department of a company whose operation cannot be interrupted, an activity that must take place on a rest day for the remaining workers, a surveillance or cleaning activity or activities in fairs and exhibitions.

In all the other situations, Article 229, which regulates compensatory rest for overtime, establishes that those who work on Sundays are entitled to a day of paid rest on one of the following three days. Moreover, according to Article 268, as amended by Law 93/2019 of 4 September, overtime is paid at the hourly wage amount with an increase of 25% for the first hour or fraction on a business day or an increase of 50% for each hour or fraction on a weekly mandatory rest day or complementary rest day (weekend or holiday).

Rest and breaks

The Labour Code (Articles 214 and 232) establishes the right of the worker to a daily rest of at least 11 consecutive hours between two consecutive periods of daily work and the right to at least one day of rest per week. A period of complementary weekly rest (continuous or discontinuous) in all or in some weeks of the year may be imposed by a collective agreement instrument or by the employment contract.

Working time flexibility

The Labour Code (Article 203) establishes that working time may not exceed 40 hours a week and eight hours per day.

The Labour Code (Article 204), amended by Law 23/2012 of 25 June, introduced the regime of working time adaptability, that is, the possibility of working 60 hours a week and 12 hours per day, to be set up by collective agreements, with the condition that it would not exceed 50 hours a week on average for a period of two months. It also established a regime of individual adaptability (Article 205) whereby the employer and the employee can have an individual agreement that defines periods of normal working time of 10 hours per day and 50 hours per week. Furthermore, it introduced regulations regarding working time accounts (banco de horas), which allowed four hours of additional work per day or up to 60 hours a week, up to a maximum of 200 hours a year, with the introduction of working time accounts in companies dependent on their regulation by collective agreement (Article 208).

With Law 93/2019 of 4 September, the concept of individual working time accounts (banco de horas individual) was replaced by the concept of group working time accounts (banco de horas grupal), which allowed the possibility of working 50 hours a week and 10 hours per day, to be set up by collective agreements, with the condition that this would not exceed 150 hours per year (Labour Code, Article 208(B)).

The Labour Code (Article 56) provides that a worker with a child under 12 years of age (or with a child, regardless of age, with a disability or a long-term illness) has the right to working time flexibility. Flexible working time is defined as the possibility of choosing, within certain limits, the start and end of the working day. A worker with working time flexibility may work up to six consecutive hours and up to 10 hours each day and must fulfil the corresponding normal weekly working period, on average, for each four-week period.

Maintaining health and well-being should be a high priority for workers and employers alike. Health is an asset closely associated with a person’s quality of life and longevity, as well as their ability to work. A healthy economy depends on a healthy workforce: organisations can experience loss of productivity through the ill health of their workers. This section looks at psychosocial risks and health and safety at work in Portugal.

Health and safety at work

The Labour Code (Article 281) establishes the general principles of health and safety at work and Law 102/2009 of 10 September, amended by Law 79/2019 of 2 September, regulates the legal regime for the promotion and prevention of health and safety at work, in accordance with the provisions in the Labour Code (Article 284).

Eurostat data for Portugal show that the number of accidents at work has been decreasing over time, with some variations. In 2020, there were 21,971 fewer accidents than in 2015, representing a decrease of 19%.

Accidents at work resulting in four days’ absence or more – national statistics, 2015–2020

Note: * Break in time series.

Source: Eurostat [hsw_mi02], Labour Force Survey – accidents at work by days lost, by sex and age.

The same trend is evident in national data: the number of accidents at work has been decreasing over time, with some fluctuations. In 2020, there were 52,409 fewer accidents than in 2015, representing a decrease of 25%.

Men are more vulnerable to accidents at work, both fatal and non-fatal, than women. The number of accidents involving an absence from work of four or more days decreased significantly in 2020 compared with previous years: in 2020, there were 108,772 accidents resulting in four days’ absence or more, representing a decrease of 19% compared with the number in 2015.

Accidents at work, fatal and non-fatal, by sex, age and number of working days lost

Note: n.a., not available
Source: GEP/MTSSS (2022e).

Psychosocial risks

Law 102/2009 of 10 September, amended in 2019 by Law 79/2019 of 2 September, specifies that, besides chemical, physical and biological risks, the employer must ensure that exposure to psychosocial risks is limited and that the health and safety of workers is not at risk (Article 15).

Law 73/2017 of 16 August, amended by Declaration of Rectification 28/2017 of 2 October, reinforces the legal framework that regulates harassment at work in the private and public sectors, amending the Labour Code and the General Labour Law in Public Functions. Companies with seven or more employees are required to adopt codes of good conduct aimed at preventing and combating harassment at work. Non-compliance constitutes a very serious administrative infringement, triggering penalties of variable amounts, depending on the company’s annual turnover and the employer’s degree of responsibility.

In 2017, the guide for the development of the code of good conduct for preventing and combating harassment at work (Guia para a elaboração do código de boa conduta para a prevenção e combate ao assédio no trabalho) was published by the Commission for Equality in Labour and Employment (Comissão para a Igualdade no Trabalho e no Emprego, CITE). It aims to assist employers in the creation of a management tool to facilitate the policy of zero tolerance to harassment.

Skills are the passport to employment; the more highly skilled an individual, the more employable they are. People with good skills also tend to secure better-quality jobs and better earnings. This section briefly summarises the Portuguese system for ensuring skills and employability and looks at training provision.

National system for ensuring skills and employability

Portugal’s Qualifica centres are responsible for the educational and occupational system for recognition, validation and certification of competences (RVCC) for adults (18+ years). They are also involved in organising a network of educational and training opportunities appropriate for local qualification needs, improving contact between schools and companies’ training centres, monitoring young people’s and adults’ pathways to different qualification solutions to determine if the expected trajectories are being met, and collecting information on the interaction between the learning outcomes of young people and adults and the needs of the labour market in order to improve the quality of education and training.

The RVCC provides accreditation for skills and competencies that have been acquired in different learning contexts, including people’s personal, professional and social lives. The RVCC includes three stages: recognition (of the knowledge, know-how and skills of each applicant), validation (of skills through a standard assessment) and certification of skills (which is formalised by issuing a certificate of basic education at level 1, 2 or 3 or a secondary education diploma, depending on the case).

The Qualifica programme comprises a set of lifelong learning measures that had previously been implemented within the New Opportunities initiative, which was subsequently discontinued.

The Qualifica programme focuses on adult education and training, complemented by a process of training certification. Its main objective is to improve the levels of qualification among the population and individuals’ employability. Qualifica centres, where adults can validate their competencies, are key structures in the implementation of this programme.

Training

The Institute for Employment and Vocational Training (Instituto do Emprego e Formação Profissional, IEFP) is responsible for managing public employment services, job centres and vocational training centres. The IEFP aims to promote employment and combat unemployment through the implementation of active employment policies, including vocational training.

The principle of equal treatment requires that all people – and, in the context of the workplace, all workers – have the right to receive the same treatment, and will not be discriminated against on the basis of criteria such as age, sex, disability, nationality, race and religion.

Equality between men and women is enshrined in the Constitution, namely in the provisions on employment.

Furthermore, specific legal provisions ensure equality and non-discrimination at work.

• Law 105/97 of 13 September aims to ensure the effectiveness of the right of both sexes to equal treatment at work and in employment.
• The Labour Code (Law 7/2009 of 12 February) includes a subsection on equality and non-discrimination, which includes provisions regarding the prohibition of discrimination based on sex and sanctions in case there is a breach of the law.
• Decree Law 133/2013 of 3 October establishes that public companies must implement goals of social and environmental responsibility, namely the promotion of equality and non-discrimination, and adopt equality plans in order to achieve effective equal treatment and opportunities between men and women, to eliminate discrimination and to promote the reconciliation of professional, family and personal life.
• Law 35/2014 of 20 June approves the General Labour Law in Public Functions, applying the provisions of the Labour Code, namely regarding equality, non-discrimination and parenting.
• Law 120/2015 of 1 September, which introduced the ninth amendment to the Labour Code, reinforces maternity and paternity rights and includes several measures to promote a better work–family reconciliation.
• Law 28/2015 of 14 April prohibits discriminatory practices based on ‘gender identity’.
• Law 93/2017 of 23 August establishes the legal regime for the prevention of, prohibition of and fight against discrimination on the grounds of race/ethnic origin, nationality, ancestry and territory of origin.

On 5 December 2018, 3 Aligned – Programme for the Reconciliation of Professional, Private and Family Life 2018–2019 was launched. This programme aims at promoting a better work–life balance as a condition for equality between men and women and for full citizenship. Since its launch, some specific legal provisions have been created to reinforce parenting protection and non-discrimination at work.

• Law 26/2019 of 28 March establishes the balanced representation regime between men and women with regard to the management staff and in public administration bodies.
• Law 90/2019 of 4 September reinforces parenting protection, amending the Labour Code and Decree-Law 89/2009 of 9 April and Decree Law 91/2009 of 9 April.

The national mechanism for the promotion of equality and non-discrimination between men and women in labour and employment is CITE. Its main responsibilities are to promote equality and non-discrimination between women and men in work, employment and vocational training; the protection of parenthood (maternity, paternity and adoption); and the reconciliation of professional, personal and family life.

Although the promotion of equality and non-discrimination between men and women in work and employment is not its main mission, the Commission for Citizenship and Gender Equality (Comissão para a Cidadania e a Igualdade de Género) also has competencies in this area.

Equal pay and gender pay gap

As provided for in the Labour Code (Article 31), women are entitled to receive equal pay for equal work or work of the same value as that performed by men. Nevertheless, a gender pay gap persists regarding both wages and earnings.

The following figure shows that, over the years, the basic monthly wage has consistently been higher for male than for female employees. In 2020, women earned an average of €148.90 less than men each month.

Source: GEP/MTSSS (2022c), Séries Cronológicas Quadros de Pessoal 2010-2020, Lisbon.

The following figures reinforce the idea that wage differentials are unfavourable for women, in terms of both remuneration and earnings. Even so, it is evident that, over the years, the gender pay gap has been progressively reducing. However, it took five years for the differential to reduce by 3.7 percentage points in average monthly remuneration and by 3.3 percentage points in monthly earnings. The reduction of this gap has been attributed, in part, to the increase in women’s remuneration resulting from the significant increase in the mandatory national minimum wage – as a higher proportion of women than men have wages close to the mandatory minimum wage (Casaca, 2022, p. 7) – and not necessarily to ‘structural changes associated with the notion of sexual discrimination’ (Cardoso et al, 2016, p. 66).

The gender pay gap has been addressed by several legislative support measures.

• Resolution of the Council of Ministers 13/2013 of 8 March approved a set of measures ensuring and promoting equal opportunities and outcomes for women and men in the labour market. The main objectives of these measures are the elimination of the gender wage gap, the promotion of balance between work and personal and family life, the encouragement of corporate social responsibility and the elimination of occupational segregation and other differences that still exist.
• Assembly Resolution 45/2013 of 4 April recommended that the government implement the necessary mechanisms to combat direct and indirect wage discrimination by prioritising inspective and punitive action. It also set out a national plan against direct and indirect wage discrimination.
• Resolution of the Council of Ministers 18/2014 of 7 March adopted several measures for the promotion of equal pay between men and women and the elimination of wage discrimination based on sex.
• A discussion about wage differences will be promoted among the social partners.
• Every three years, state-owned companies should produce a report on male and female wages in order to take concrete measures to be included in the plans for gender equality.
• Following this report, state-owned companies should take concrete measures to eliminate the situations of wage inequality between women and men that were identified.
• An electronic tool should be provided for companies to evaluate the gender pay gap and identify concrete situations of wage differences between women and men that cannot be explained by objective factors.
• Private companies with more than 25 employees should develop a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the pay gap between women and men. These companies should consequently develop a strategy to address the unjustified differences in those remunerations.
• Resolution of the Council of Ministers 11-A/2015 of 6 March 2015 provided for a mechanism to support companies in the identification and analysis of the gender pay gap as a tool to promote equal pay.

• Law 60/2018 of 21 August introduced measures to promote equal pay between women and men who perform equal work or work of equal value.

   

Quota regulations

• Over the years, particularly since 2012, a legal basis for encouraging the participation of women in management bodies has been developed.  Resolution of the Council of Ministers 19/2012 of 23 February aims to increase the participation of women in management bodies of companies in the public and private sectors. Public companies must adopt plans for equality and identical procedures are recommended for the private sector.
• Decree-Law 133/2013 of 3 October laid down the principles and rules applicable to public sector companies. This law establishes that the administration and supervision bodies of state-owned enterprises must pursue the objective of a plural presence of men and women in their composition.
• Resolution of the Council of Ministers 11-A/2015 of 6 March 2015 sets out a commitment for listed companies to achieve a more balanced representation of women and men in their boards, with a target of 30% of the underrepresented sex by the end of 2018.
• Law 62/2017 of 1 August established a minimum degree of representation of women on executive company boards and surveillance boards in public companies and private listed companies. Since January 2018, the required minimum of female board members for public companies has been 33.3% and for private listed companies has been 20%, although the latter increased to 33.3% from 1 January 2020.
• Law 26/2019 of 28 March 2019 established a minimum degree of representation of women among top civil servants in public administration and in public higher education institutions and public associations of 40%.
• Organic Law 1/2019 of 29 March 2019 raised from 33.3% to 40% the minimum degree of representation of women in electoral lists of the national and European parliaments, elective bodies of municipalities and members of the parish councils.

Employers

• Association of Construction and Public Works and Services Companies (AECOPS)
• Association of Portuguese Industry (AIP)
• Confederation of Portuguese Farmers (CAP)
• Portuguese Commerce and Services Confederation (CCP)
• Entrepreneurial Confederation of Portugal (CIP)
• Portuguese Confederation of Tourism (CTP)

Trade unions

CGTP-IN and affiliates

• General Confederation of Portuguese Workers (CGTP-IN)
• Hotel and Tourism Workers’ Unions (FESAHT)
• National Federation of Teachers (FENPROF)
• National Federation of Public Sector Trade Unions (FNSTFPS)
• Nurses’ Union (SEP)
• Northern Hotel and Restaurant Workers’ Union (SIND-HOT-NORTE)
• Lisbon Teachers’ Union (SPGL)
• Northern Teachers’ Union (SPN)
• Central Region Teachers’ Union (SPRC)
• Local Authority Workers’ Union (STAL)
• Union for Workers in Consulates and Diplomatic Missions (STCDE)
• Union of Northern Public Service Workers (STFPSN)
• Union of Southern Public Service Workers (STFPSSRA)
• Association of Unions of Setubal (USS)

UGT and affiliates

• General Union of Workers (UGT)
• Education Workers’ Federation (FNE)
• Mais - Financial Sector Trade Union (MAIS)
• Nurses’ Union (SE)
• Energy Workers’ Union (SINDEL)
• Post and Telecommunications Workers’ Union (SINDETELCO)
• Medical Technicians’ Union (SINDITE)
• Public Administration Workers’ Union (SINTAP)
• Commerce, Hotel and Service Workers’ Union (SITESE)
• Audiovisual Workers’ Union (SMAV)
• Central Area Teachers’ Union (SPZC)
• Northern Area Teachers’ Union (SPZN)
• Technical Civil Servants’ Union (STE)
• Managerial and Professional Union Confederation (CPQTC)
• National Federation of Doctors (FNAM)
• Telecommunications and Audiovisual Workers’ Union (SINTTAV)
• Post and Telecommunications Workers’ Union (SNTCT)
• Local Authority Workers’ Union (STAL)
• Union of Central Region Public Service Workers (STFPC)

Other union organisations

• Higher Education Union (SNESUP)
• Rail Workers’ Union (SINDEFER)
• Higher Education Workers’ Union (Snesup)

Government

• Directorate-General for Employment and Labour Relations (DGERT)
• Ministry of Labour, Solidarity, and Social Security (MTSSS),  Office for Statistics and Panning (GEP)

Other links

• Economic and Social Council (CES)
• Centre for Labour Relations (CRL)
• Collaborative Laboratory for Labour, Employment and Social Protection (Colabor)
• Institute for the Improvement and Inspection of Working Conditions (IDICT)
• Institute of Employment and Vocational Training (IEFP)
• Statistics Portugal (INE)
• Institute Ruben Rolo for social innovation

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