Working time in Portugal is governed by the Labour Code, but your contract and an applicable collective agreement can give you better conditions. The ordinary statutory ceiling is generally 8 hours per day and 40 hours per week. This guide explains normal hours, breaks and weekly rest, annual leave, public holidays and—especially important when checking a payslip—when extra work is legally trabalho suplementar (overtime) and how it must be paid.
Normal working hours: usually up to 8 hours a day / 40 a week
Article 203 of the Labour Code sets the general maximum normal working period at eight hours per day and forty hours per week. There are lawful working-time arrangements that can redistribute hours, and collective agreements can reduce the limits, so do not judge an unusual schedule from the headline 8/40 rule alone.
The employer sets the work schedule within the law and must take account of health and safety and facilitate reconciliation of work and family life. Under Article 213, the working day normally includes a rest interval of at least one and no more than two hours so that the worker does not work more than five consecutive hours (or six where the daily period exceeds ten hours), subject to lawful exceptions.
Weekly rest
Workers are entitled to at least one day of rest per week under Article 232. Sunday is not inevitably everybody’s rest day: sectors that operate continuously or at weekends can lawfully organise the weekly rest differently. A contract or collective agreement may also provide complementary weekly rest.
Annual leave: at least 22 working days
Under Articles 237–238, employees have a right to paid annual leave and the normal minimum is 22 working days. The right is intended for genuine rest and generally cannot simply be exchanged for cash. Special rules apply in the year you start employment, short contracts and when employment ends.
Do not confuse annual leave with the subsídio de férias. You continue to have a right to holiday itself, while the holiday subsidy is a separate statutory remuneration entitlement explained in guide #41.
Portugal’s mandatory public holidays
Article 234 lists the mandatory national holidays: 1 January, Good Friday, Easter Sunday, 25 April, 1 May, Corpus Christi, 10 June, 15 August, 5 October, 1 November, and 1, 8 and 25 December. Article 235 also allows Carnival Tuesday and the relevant municipal holiday to be observed where provided by collective regulation or the employment contract.
If you normally work on a public holiday
A public holiday does not automatically mean “double pay”. First determine whether the holiday work is part of your normal schedule or is overtime. The legal compensation differs.
For an employee doing normal scheduled work on a public holiday in a company that is not required to suspend operations that day, Article 269 gives the worker either:
- compensatory rest equal to half the number of hours worked; or
- a 50% increase in the corresponding remuneration.
Under the statutory rule, the employer chooses between those two forms of compensation. A collective agreement can be relevant, so check it too. Be careful with old websites and old versions of the Labour Code: historical text can still appear online with different percentages.
What counts as overtime?
Article 226 defines trabalho suplementar broadly as work performed outside the worker’s schedule, while also listing exceptions. Staying a few minutes late is therefore not something to classify casually without checking the rules: Article 203 contains a specific exceptional 15-minute tolerance for finishing transactions/tasks already started, with payment rules once that time accumulates.
When can an employer require overtime?
Overtime is not supposed to be an unlimited substitute for ordinary staffing. Article 227 permits it where the business faces an eventual and temporary increase in work and hiring another worker is not justified, as well as force majeure or where it is indispensable to prevent or repair serious harm to the business or its viability. The worker is generally required to perform lawful overtime unless, for an acceptable reason, they expressly request exemption. Specific protected situations and collective rules can matter.
How much overtime can you work?
For ordinary temporary workload increases, Article 228 generally limits overtime to:
- 175 hours/year in a micro or small company;
- 150 hours/year in a medium or large company;
- special limits for part-time workers;
- 2 hours on a normal working day;
- on a weekly rest day or public holiday, up to the worker’s normal daily working period.
A collective labour instrument can raise the 150/175-hour annual limit to 200 hours. Force-majeure/serious-harm overtime is subject to a different limitation framework, so the annual figures above should not be treated as an absolute rule for every emergency.
Statutory overtime pay
The current Article 268 uses two bands depending on how much overtime the worker has already performed in that calendar year:
| Overtime | Ordinary working day | Weekly rest day / public holiday |
|---|---|---|
| Up to 100 overtime hours/year | +25% first hour/fraction; +37.5% each subsequent hour/fraction | +50% per hour/fraction |
| After 100 overtime hours/year | +50% first hour/fraction; +75% each subsequent hour/fraction | +100% per hour/fraction |
These percentages are increases on the hourly remuneration, not the whole amount you receive. For example, “+50%” means the normal hourly remuneration plus an additional 50% for that overtime hour. Collective regulation may give more favourable terms.
Holiday work and holiday overtime are different
This distinction prevents many payroll misunderstandings. If a hotel employee is normally rostered to work on a public holiday, Article 269’s normal-holiday-work rule may apply. If work on the holiday is genuinely outside the worker’s schedule and qualifies as overtime, Article 268’s overtime rates become relevant instead. Do not automatically add every percentage from both articles together: identify the legal type of work first and check any applicable collective agreement.
Compensatory rest after overtime
Under Article 229, overtime that prevents the worker taking the required daily rest creates a right to paid compensatory rest equal to the missing rest, normally within the following three working days. Work on the mandatory weekly rest day gives a paid compensatory rest day, also normally within the following three working days.
Keep your own record
Employers have legal time-recording duties, but workers should also keep their own evidence when hours are disputed: rota screenshots, clock-in records, messages requesting extra work and payslips. Article 268 expressly provides for payment where overtime was previously and expressly ordered or was performed in circumstances where employer opposition was not foreseeable.
Practical examples
- You normally work Monday–Friday and your manager asks you to stay two extra hours Tuesday: this can be overtime; check the Article 268 working-day rate and your annual overtime total.
- You are normally rostered in a hotel on 25 December: working the holiday is not automatically overtime merely because it is Christmas Day. Check Article 269 and your collective agreement.
- You are called in outside your schedule on a public holiday: determine whether it is overtime under Article 226; the holiday/rest-day overtime band in Article 268 can apply.
- Your boss routinely schedules 50 hours every week and calls all of it “occasional overtime”: that deserves closer scrutiny because Article 227 frames overtime around temporary increases and specified exceptional needs.
If your hours or holiday pay look wrong
First compare your contract, schedule, time records, payslip and any collective agreement. Ask the employer/payroll department for the calculation in writing. For labour-law information or a suspected breach, contact the Autoridade para as Condições do Trabalho (ACT). For a substantial dispute or unpaid wages, consider a union or Portuguese employment lawyer.
Official law links
- Article 203 — maximum normal working period
- Article 226 — definition of overtime
- Articles 227–230 — when overtime is permitted, limits and compensatory rest
- Articles 234–236 — public holidays
- Articles 237–238 — annual leave
- Article 268 — overtime pay
- Article 269 — normal work on a public holiday
Last verified: 2 October 2026 against the consolidated Portuguese Labour Code. Collective agreements and special working-time regimes can provide different or more favourable conditions.