Legislative Amendments
Law No. 13/2013, dated April 3rd, promoted several significant changes in the scope of labour legislation.
Such changes will be noted in particular in the Portuguese Labour Code and related legislation, so it is important to understand their scope.
In this regard, we highlight the main changes made by the new Law, which came into force on May 1st 2023:
- Right to Information: There is an expansion of the employer’s duty to provide information to employees, namely regarding the following aspects: use, rules and instructions applicable to artificial intelligence systems; duration and conditions applicable to the trial period; individual right to continuous training; temporary work user identification; applicable rules in case of overtime work and organization of shift work; method of payment of salaries and break down of its different elements; requirements to be observed by the employer and employee for termination of the contract; identification of entities signing the applicable collective instrument (IRCT); identifications of social protection systems, including complementary and substitutive benefits; duration of the stipulated term, in the case of a fixed-term employment contract. We emphasize that the deadline for communicating any change to the elements that make up the duty of information will also be changed.
- Parental Protection: In case of selection of the initial parental leave with a foreseen duration of 120 days, the parents can, after the enjoyment of 120 consecutive days, accumulate, in each day, the remaining days of the leave with part-time work; the mother’s exclusive parental leave is computed in days and not in weeks; it is mandatory for the father to take a parental leave of 28 days, consecutively or in intermingled periods of at least 7 days, in the 42 days following the birth of the child, 7 of which are taken consecutively immediately after; a new type of parental leave for part-time work has been introduced, with a duration of three months.
- Fixed-term contracting: Indefinite term contracts must disclaim their predictable duration; the expiry of the fixed-term contract will now provide a compensation of 24 days of basic pay and seniority payments for each full year of seniority.
- Trial period: The trial period is presumed to be excluded if the employer does not inform the employee about the duration and conditions of that period. Also noteworthy is the increase from 15 to 30 days in the prior notice period for termination of the contract during the trial period if the time already elapsed from this period is equal to or greater than 120 days..
- Outsourcing: The acquisition of services by external entities to satisfy needs that have been assured by an employee whose contract has ended in the previous 12 months, due to collective dismissal or termination of a job, is prohibited.
- Remote Work: Contracts allowing remote work must establish the amount of compensation due to the employee for additional expenses, and in the absence of an agreement, the employer is obliged to pay the additional expenses resulting from the acquisition of goods or services that the employee did not have before remote work, as well as those resulting from a comparison with similar expenses in the last month of on-site work.
- Labour Credits: Workers’ waivers in relation to labour credits they have not received are no longer effective, except if arising from a court settlement.
- Overtime Work: Overtime work exceeding 100 hours a year is now paid with the following increases: o On working days, there is an increase of 50% in the first hour/part and 75% in the next hour/part. o On weekly rest days, mandatory or complementary, or on public holidays, there is an increase of 100% in each hour/fraction.
- Collective Dismissal/Extinction of Work Post/Inadaptation: In these situations, compensation due to the employee is now 14 days of base pay and seniority payments for each year of seniority.
- Admission to Social Security: It is a crime punishable with prison of up to 3 years, or a fine of up to 360 days, the lack of communication to Social Security regarding the admission of employees, within a period of 6 months.
- Absences: There is an extension of the period in which it is possible for the employee to be absent from work due to the death of a spouse, child or stepchild. There is also an extension of the period of absences due to the death of certain relatives.
- Independent Workers: This law introduces the concept of economic dependence of self-employed workers on the entities for which they work. In order for this economic dependence to be verified, the work provider must be an individual who performs activities for the same beneficiary and obtains at least 50% of the product of his activity from it. It should be clarified that the work is considered to be provided for a single beneficiary in situations where the activity is provided to several companies in a group relationship or even when they share organizational structures. These workers will now benefit from the rules of the collective instruments (IRCT) applicable to the beneficiary of the activity. Likewise, these workers will be subject to representation by trade unions and workers’ committees.
- Professional Internship: The professional internship regime undergoes changes regarding the value of the internship funding and the need to have work accident insurance in place.
Despite the content of this information, it is advisable to fully examine the new law. For support in interpreting and applying the new law, MSAd is available to provide any necessary help.
José Morais Sarmento | Rodrigo Sá Pereira
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