Meet the Law - Employment & Pensions Law

Decent Work Agenda
 
After several months of discussion, the (various) amendments to the Labour Code and related legislation have finally been approved, under the Decent Work Agenda (Agenda do Trabalho Digno). The document, already promulgated by His Excellency, The President of the Portuguese Republic, should be published in the coming days, and is expected to come into force on 1st April.

Below we will highlight the main changes and invite you to click on each of the referred links, where you can obtain more detailed information on each topic.

• Duty to inform and employee’s guarantees: Extension of the information that employers must provide to employees as well as of the employee’s guarantees, namely exercising another professional activity.
• Probationary period: Amendment of the rules regarding the extended probationary period, prior notice, among others.
• Digital platforms: Presumption of the existence of an employment contract in the relations between the activity provider and the digital platform;
• Parental regime: Amendment to the scope and duration of leave, exemptions and absences, as well as extending some of the rules of the regime to cases of adoption and foster families.
• Caregiver-employee: Set of rights and duties especially foreseen for employees who have been recognised as non-main informal caregivers, under the terms of the applicable legislation.
• Telework: revision of the expenses’ regime, and extension of the right to render work under this regime.
• Absences: Amendment of the regime of absences due to grief, death, assistance to a member of the household, among others.
• Adaptability and group time bank: Exclusion of some employees from working under these regimes.
• Overtime work: Increase in the amounts to be paid, depending on the number of annual hours of overtime work.
• Temporary Work: Revision of the temporary work regime, as well as reduction of the maximum duration of temporary work contracts.
• Transfer of Undertaking: Amendments to the regime in particular as regards to applicable collective bargaining agreements.
• Collective Bargaining: Provision of several amendments that broaden its scope of application, as well as the termination of its effects.
• Trade union activity within the Company: Trade union activity within the company can be carried out even if there are no unionised employees in the company or establishment.
• Procedures and compensation for termination of employment contracts: Increase in the amounts of compensation for termination of employment contracts when on the initiative of employers.
• Abdicative Remission: Amendment to the regime, whereby the abdicative remission of labour credits arising from the termination of the employment contract is no longer possible, except by means of a judicial transaction.

In which concerns the Contributory Code, we highlight the amendments to the rules of the regime applicable to the presumption of the beginning of the work relationship, of undeclared work, notification on the admission of foreign employees and accession to or modification of the labour compensation fund or equivalent mechanism.

With regards to the Labour Code Regulation, we highlight the amendments to the applicable regime for the purposes of extending the working hours operation, as well as continuous working hours.
 
In April we will announce a set of training courses to learn more about these and other changes. Stay tuned!