Portugal

Lack of precise data makes it difficult to give figures of trade union membership in Portugal and there is a large gap between the totals provided by the unions and other estimates. There are two main trade union confederations, the CGTP and the UGT, whose relationship was initially marked by conflict rather than co-operation but has now improved. Trade union structures are complex with around 400 autonomous individual unions.

There are just over a million trade union members in Portugal, according to figures provided by the unions themselves, although some of the available union density figures suggest a lower number.

There are no regular official estimates of union density for the whole economy, but the Office for Planning and Strategy (GEP) in the Ministry of Labour and Social Solidarity (MTSS) produces regular figures on union density in the private sector. Figures published in the 2018 updating a 2016 green paper on labour relations, show union density in the private sector 8.3% in 2016.[1] However, this is certainly an underestimate of union density across the economy, as the figures do not include public administration, where union density is higher, and they originally come from the employers, who only know about union members who pay their subscription via the employer, not those who pay directly.[2]

The ICTWSS independent database of industrial relations information calculated union density in Portugal at 15.3% in 2016.[3] This is based on a total estimated union membership of 560,000, split between the two main union confederations, the CGTP with 400,000 members and the UGT with 160,000.

These figures are well below the membership numbers the union confederations themselves have published. In figures provided to the European Trade Union Confederation, the CGTP indicated that it had 555,000 members in 2015.[4] The UGT stated that it had 458,000 members at the end of 2016, in its report to its congress in March 2017.[5] In addition, there are a number of smaller unions outside the main confederations. However, there is no information on their total membership.

The problems in establishing accurate membership figures are, in part, explained by the fragmented and complex structure of trade unionism in Portugal. The database of the Ministry of Labour and Social Solidarity listed 404 active union organisations of all types at the end of June 2020.[6] The 2016 green paper on industrial relations, using data from 2015,identified 377 union organisations, of which six were confederations, 43 were unions (Uniões) normally at a regional level , 27 were federations (normally industry based and 300 were independent unions (Sindicatos).[7]

The CGTP provides an example of this complexity and fragmentation. In the report presented to its 2020 congress, it states that there are 79 unions that are directly affiliated to it, but there are another 46 unions which are not affiliated but cooperate with it either on a regular basis (17 unions) or on an issue by issue basis (29). This wider group of 125 unions, known as the MSU (Movimento Sindical Unitário), breaks down between 56 which operate at national level, 65 which operate at a local level – mostly covering several districts, two which operate outside Portugal and two based in the Azores. In terms of the type of membership, 37 are occupationally based unions, 82 are industrially based unions and six are a mixture of the two.[8] The CGTP’s largest single individual affiliate is the local government union STAL, whose stated membership is 56,000 and which operates across Portugal at national level.[9]

Since the early 1990s, the CGTP has made considerable progress in rationalising these structures by getting unions to merge, reducing the number of separate unions affiliated to it from 152 in 1993, to 107 in 1999 and to 79 by 2020. The CGTP’s 10 industry federations and its 22 regional bodies now provide a much clearer structure for organisation. The CGTP organises the majority of trade unionists other than finance and energy and it is strongest in manufacturing and the public sector.

The UGT also has a mixture of industry and occupationally based unions. Most of its 49 unions are national but there are some, such as those for bank employees and teachers which only cover part of the country. (There are bank unions for the north, centre and the south of the country and the islands, for example.) Like the CGTP, the UGT has unions which, while not affiliated, work with it. There are 24 of these. There are also six industry federations and 20 regional bodies.[10] The UGT has most members in the services sector, both private and public, and is particularly strong in banking and insurance. SBSI, which represents bank employees in the south of the country and the islands, describes itself on its website as “the largest Portuguese trade union” and is reported to have 40,000 members.[11]

As well as the two main confederations CGTP and the UGT there is a much smaller confederation, the USI, which lists 14 affiliated unions on its website.[12] However, more significant in industrial relations terms are the unions which not linked to any of the main confederations. There are around 100 of these and there are some indications that their number may be increasing. A report in April 2019 noted that 22 of the 24 new unions that had been set up since the start of 2017 were not affiliated to any confederation. These new unions included two, a nurses’ union, ASPE, and a lorry drivers’ union SNMMP, which have been involved in important strikes.

There are important political differences between the two main confederations. The CGTP emerged after the 1974 revolution and initially had close links with the communist party. The UGT was set up in 1978 to provide an alternative to the CGTP's political approach by, as its own history states, trade unions with links to social democratic and liberal-conservative parties.As a result, relations between the two confederations were initially very strained. However, since the late 1980s the position has improved considerably, although clear differences remain.

One key difference is that the UGT is much more prepared to sign national tripartite agreements with the employers and the government than the CGTP. Between 2012 and the end of June 2020 there have been six separate agreements signed in the Standing Committee for Social Concertation (CPCS), the national body that brings together representatives of the government, the employers and the unions. The CGTP and the UGT are the only union bodies in the CPCS (see section on collective bargaining). These agreements have in some cases led to far-reaching changes to employment law, particularly those signed in 2012 and 2018. However, none of these agreements has been signed by the CGTP.[13]

The lack of detailed information makes it difficult to judge union membership developments in Portugal. However, the figures from the Ministry of Labour and Social Solidarity (MTSS), which cover union density in the private sector, show a steady fall from 10.6% in 2010 to 8.3% in 2016.[14] Over the longer term, it seems clear that while union membership has grown in some areas, particularly the public sector, membership has been adversely affected by the loss of jobs in manufacturing, and, following the financial crisis, in banking and insurance. Both the CGTP and the UGT have adopted programmes at their recent congresses aiming to increase their membership. The CGTP reporting at its 2020 congress that its target of recruiting 110,00 new members over the previous four years had been beaten, with 114,677 new members being recruited.

As in other countries, larger workplaces are likely to have higher levels of union density (18.1%) for those with more than 250 employees, but only 3.1% for those with 10 to 49, although it is important to emphasise that these figures, from the Ministry of Labour and Social Solidarity and published in the update of the green paper, only cover the private sector.

There are no official figures on union density for men and women. Figures provide to the ETUC gender equality survey show that women make up 52% of the membership of the CGTP (2015) and 45% of the UGT’s membership (2018).[15]

[1] Atualização do Livro Verde sobre as Relações Laborais 2016, Ministério do Trabalho, Solidariedade e Segurança Social 24.01.2018 https://www.portugal.gov.pt/pt/gc21/comunicacao/documento?i=atualizacao-do-livro-verde-sobre-as-relacoes-laborais-2016 (Accessed 01.07.2020)

[2] Ainda vale a pena ser sindicalizado? by Sónia M Lourenço, Expresso, 01.05.18 https://expresso.pt/politica/2018-05-01-Ainda-vale-a-pena-ser-sindicalizado- (Accessed 01.07.2020)

[3] Jelle Visser, ICTWSS Data base. Version 6.1. Amsterdam: Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies AIAS. October 2019

[4] ETUC Annual Gender Equality Survey 2019 – 12th edition, by Lionel Fulton and Cinzia Sechi, ETUC, April 2019 https://www.etuc.org/sites/default/files/circular/file/2019-05/ETUC_Annual_Equality_Survey%202019_FINAL_EN.pdf (Accessed 01.07.2020)

[5] Relatório do Secretariado Nacional XIII Congresso UGT https://www.ugt.pt/13congresso/publicfiles/zg41n1hleeph7dmtaf4u1kmhrhte20u8agevucmm.pdf (Accessed 01.07.2020)

[6] Organizações de Trabalho – Lista de associações sindicais e de associações de empregadores , Direcção-Geral do Emprego e das Relações de Trabalho, Ministerio do Trabalho e da Solidariedade Social https://www.dgert.gov.pt/organizacoes-de-trabalho-lista-de-associacoes-sindicais-e-de-associacoes-de-empregadores#dsrcot_ws_form (Accessed 01.07.2020)

[7] Livro Verde sobre as Relações Laborais, Gabinete de Estratégia e Planeamento do Ministério do Trabalho, Solidariedade e Segurança Social, December 2016 http://cite.gov.pt/pt/destaques/complementosDestqs2/LIVRO_VERDE_2016.pdf (Accessed 01.07.2020)

[8] Relatório de Actividades (Mandato 2016-2020) http://www.cgtp.pt/xiv-congresso/documentos/relatorio-de-actividades (Accessed 01.07.2020)

[9] STAL website https://www.stal.pt/index.php/o-sindicato/quem-somos.html (Accessed 01.07.2020)

[10] UGT website https://www.ugt.pt/comissoespagina/sindicatos-verticais-e-profissionais-124 (Accessed 01.07.2020)

[11] SBSI website https://www.sbsi.pt/Pages/default.aspx and Outros poderes. Como resiste a UGT à crise do sindicalismo by Ana Suspiro, Observador, 26 December 2019 https://observador.pt/especiais/outros-poderes-como-resiste-a-ugt-a-crise-do-sindicalismo/ (Accessed 01.07.2020)

[12] USI website https://www.usi.pt/filiados/ (Accessed 01.07.2020)

[13] CES website http://www.ces.pt/concertacao-social/acordos (Accessed 01.07.2020)

[14] Figures from the 2016 green paper and its updating in 2018: Livro Verde sobre as Relações Laborais (2016) and Atualização do Livro Verde sobre as Relações Laborais (2018)

[15] ETUC Annual Gender Equality Survey 2019 – 12th edition, by Lionel Fulton and Cinzia Sechi, ETUC, April 2019 https://www.etuc.org/sites/default/files/circular/file/2019-05/ETUC_Annual_Equality_Survey%202019_FINAL_EN.pdf (Accessed 01.07.2020)

Negotiations at industry level, between employers’ associations and the unions, have in the past been the most important element in Portugal’s bargaining arrangements, providing a high level of collective bargaining coverage – partially through the extension of agreements by the government. However, the system has been under threat because of legal changes, which have only partially been reversed

The framework

Portuguese legislation provides for three main types of collective agreement. These are:

• industry-level agreements (CCs), which can be signed at national, regional or local level;
• agreements covering several companies (ACs); and
• agreements at the level of a single company or a workplace (AEs).

In almost all areas industry-level agreements are more important than other sorts of agreements, in terms of number of workers covered. However, there are some industries where this is not the case. For example, in 2018, agreements signed jointly by several companies (ACs) covered more workers than industry-level agreements in financial services, information and communication and utilities. Individual company agreements are also important in transport and logistics, although they cover fewer workers than the industry-level agreements.[1]

Where there are competing agreements, single company agreements (AEs) take precedence over multi-company agreements (ACs) and industry-level agreements (CCs), and multi-company agreements take precedence over industry-level agreements. Legislation introduced in 2012 allowed for collective agreements to change this order of precedence.[2] However, this option seems have hardly been used – with, for example, just three cases in 2015.[3]

Figures from the Ministry of Labour and Social Solidarity (MTSS) show that 240 agreements of all types were signed in 2019, made up of 105 industry-level agreements (CCs), 105 company agreements (AEs) and 30 agreements signed by several companies acting together (ACs).[4] The 105 industry-level agreements had a much wider impact in terms of numbers, covering 712,989 workers, while the 105 company agreements covered just 37,676. The remaining 35 multi-company agreements covered 42,218 workers, producing a total of 792,883 workers covered by collective agreements.

These figures are well below the level of bargaining that existed before financial crisis and the economic adjustment programme of austerity measures that followed. Between 2008 and 2019, the total number agreements signed fell from 296 to 250, a 19% drop, and the number of workers covered fell from 1.9 million to 792,883, a 58% reduction. This is despite some recovery in bargaining activity after the election of a new government in 2015.[5]

Changing government policy towards the extension of collective agreements – making them binding not just on the members of the employers’ association which signed them but on the whole industry – has been a key reason for these developments. It largely explains both the initial fall in the coverage of industry-level agreements and their subsequent partial recovery

In the past, extension of industry-level agreements was often almost automatic. In 2008, there were 172 industry-wide agreements and 137 agreements were extended. However, under the terms of the financial bailout, the government agreed to limit the extension of agreements to those where that the signatory employers’ organisations employed more than half of all the employees in the industry concerned and to consider the impact of the extension on the competitiveness of that industry.[6] The result was that the number of agreements extended beyond the signatory parties fell dramatically, dropping from 137 in 2008 to 12 in 2012 and reaching a record low of just nine in 2013.[7]

However, the new extension rules led to problems in an economy dominated by small companies and in 2014, they were altered in new legislation to take into “account the representativeness of micro, small and medium-sized companies”.[8] It permitted the extension of agreements where the employers’ association signing them consisted to at least 30% of micro, small and medium-sized companies. These new rules resulted in the number of extensions more than doubling, from 13 in 2014 to 34 in 2015 and 35 in 2016.

However, this was not the end of the story. Following a elections in 2015 which produced a government of the Socialist Party, supported by left-wing parties, new legislation was introduced in 2017. This abandoned the previous approach, based on meeting specific criteria, replacing it with a broader policy of “promoting better levels of social cohesion and equality”, particularly gender equality.[9] Under these new rules, the number of extensions increased to 84 in 2017, 75 in 2018 and 83 in 2019

However, policy on extending collective agreements was not the only area where changes were introduced during the period of the economic adjustment programme. Other examples included:

• changes to the rules on who had the right to conduct collective bargaining at company level (see section below – Who negotiates and when?);
• allowing companies facing financial difficulties to suspend collective agreements, although only with the agreement of the unions;[10] and
• altering the rules on the length of time that agreements could last and the continuing validity of the terms they contain after they expire.

Among this group of measures, the new rules on the length of agreements and what happens after they expire have probably had the greatest impact. Legislation passed in August 2014, reduced the maximum length of collective agreements from five years to three, and rather than having 18 months after this to reach a new agreement, the parties now only have six. After this point, once one the parties has reported the failure to reach an agreement to the appropriate ministry, an agreement only remains in force for a further 45 days.[11]

As with the rules on extension, the change in government in 2015 has led to the rolling back of some of these provisions, although the situation has not returned to the position that existed pre-crisis. Unions and employers agreed at meeting of the tripartite Standing Committee for Social Concertation (CPCS) in December 2016 that they would not make use of the procedure leading to an agreement ceasing to be valid, initially for a period of 18 months.[12] And legislation passed in September 2019, guaranteed that even where an agreement as a whole ceased to be valid, the terms covering parental rights and health and safety would continue to apply, while the parties are now required to provide reasons for withdrawing from an agreement.[13]

The impact of these all these changes has been that the proportion of workers covered by collective agreements has fallen since before the crisis, although there was a very slight uptick in 2018 after some of the measures introduced during the economic adjustment programme were reversed. Figures from the Ministry of Labour and Social Solidarity, which cover most of the economy apart from public administration, show that in 2018 a total of 2,269,555 workers were covered by collective agreements that were still valid. Most were covered by industry-level agreements (2,073,822) but another 109,690 were covered by agreements for several companies and 86,043 by single company agreements.[14] This is 78.9% of all employees in the areas covered, slightly above the 78.3% recorded in 2017, but well down on the 2008 figure of 83.7%.[15]

However, as the 2019 ETUI study on collective bargaining emphasises, figures on the number covered by current collective agreements only provide part of the picture. Pay increases are normally negotiated annually – there is no tradition of multi-year deals – so unless there is an agreement every year, inflation means that real pay will fall. Figures on the proportion of workers covered by agreements negotiated in that year give a better indication of the dynamism of collective bargaining and here the differences between different periods in the past are clear. In each year between 2006 to 2010 more than half of all employees were covered by agreements signed that year. However, from 2011 this began to fall, dropping to a low of just 10% of employees in 2013 and 2014. Since then the proportion of employees covered by an agreement signed in that year has increased to around 30% (29.7% in 2017 and 31.3% in 2018) but is still well below the levels before the financial crisis.[16]

These figures do not include agreements in public administration, which has seen an increase in the number of agreements signed from 2014 onwards. In 2018, there were 177, primarily in local government.

As well as the collective bargaining structure, Portugal has a tripartite body, the Standing Committee for Social Concertation (CPCS), in which the government, the employers and the two main union confederations, CGTP and UGT, are represented.

Many of the key developments in employment legislation and government measures affecting the labour market have been preceded by agreements reached in the CPCS. have led to government action and legislation affecting employment rights.

These include the tripartite agreement on competitiveness and employment, signed in March 2011, the agreement on tackling the crisis in January 2012 and the agreement signed in 2014 on increasing the minimum wage, an area where the CPCS has specific competence. Further agreements have been signed following the election of a government led by Socialist Party in 2015: detailed provisions on the implementation of the minimum wage increase in 2016; the agreement in 2017, which included changes to the extension rules; and an agreement in 2018, which led to legislation in 2019.[17] However, although all these agreements were tripartite, in every case the sole union signatory was the UGT. None were signed by the CGTP.

Who negotiates and when?

In the Labour Code, the negotiating parties in Portugal are the unions and the employers, either individually or in employers' federations, and the union leadership signs the agreements. However, revisions to the labour code from 2009 onwards allow the union to delegate the power to negotiate company-level collective agreements to employee representatives in the company. These can be either works councils or company level union bodies. The original threshold in 2009 was 500 employees, but in 2012 this was cut to 150.[18] In general, this change seems to have had only a limited impact, as the union must agree to delegate its negotiating rights. However, there are some companies where collective bargaining is primarily conducted by the works council. The best-known example is Autoeuropa, Volkswagen’s plant in Portugal, which employs around 5,800 people.

The Labour Code does not include rules on the representativeness of unions, establishing which have a right to negotiate and sign agreements. All officially registered unions can negotiate and sign agreements, provided the employer is willing engage with them. In practice, figures from the 2016 green paper on labour relations show that the majority of agreements are signed by unions linked to the two main confederations, CGPT and the UGT. An analysis of a sample of 74 agreements found only 10 did not involve either the CGTP or the UGT, although there were a further 15 where either the CGTP or the UGT or both had signed the agreement together with another union.[19] The figures also make it clear that only five of these agreements were signed by both the CGTP and the UGT.

In many cases two or more unions will sign identical or very similar agreements with an employer. The existence of these so-called “parallel” agreements, distorts some of the statistics on the number agreements signed each year. It also has a real-world impact where the agreements differ in some of their terms, as employers can choose which to implement

Negotiations on pay traditionally took place every year and lasted for 12 months. However, many agreements are now not renewed after 12 months but remain in place for much longer. Between 2009 and 2015, the average length of time that pay rates remained in force without being updated increased from just over a year (13.7 months) to more than three-and-a-half years (43.6 months).[20] The average period before a pay increase has subsequently fallen back, dropping to just under two years (22.5 months) in 2018 and around a year-and-a-half (16.3 months) in 2019.[21] Negotiations take place throughout the year.

The subject of the negotiations

Agreements concentrate on pay rates and increases, although in industry-level agreements they generally set minimum rates rather than actual pay. However, as the annual report on collective bargaining in 2018 makes clear, they also cover many other issues. These include working time, including the possibility of banking hours, night work, overtime and shift work, as well as the associated premia, temporary transfers, geographical mobility, occupational training, arrangements for ending or revising agreements, flexibility and additional social benefits. Topics linked to equality and parental rights have become increasingly important in recent years, as have agreements on technology issues, such as remote working.[22]

Portugal has a national minimum wage (RMMG), which is normally increased each year in January. The formal position is that it is set by legislation after consultation with the tripartite CPCS.[23] In practices, in the past it generally went up in line with expected inflation, but more recently there have been above-inflation increases as a result of a series of an agreements in the tripartite CPCS.

[1] Table 22 Relatório Anual sobre a Evolução da Negociação Coletiva em 2018 Centro de Relações Laborais, 2019 http://cite.gov.pt/pt/destaques/complementosDestqs2/CRL_Relatorio_NC_2018.pdf (Accessed 01.07.2020)

[2] Labour Code Article 482, as amended by Lei n.º 23/2012

[3] Relatório Anual sobre a Evolução da Negociação Coletiva em 2015 Centro de Relações Laborais, 2016 https://www.crlaborais.pt/documents/10182/13326/CRL+-+Relat%C3%B3rio+Anual+NC+-+2015+%28vers%C3%A3o+atualizada+em+02.02.2017%29/17d6440b-3378-4f64-8d00-cc44ff75cedc (Accessed 01.07.2020)

[4] Instrumentos de regulamentação coletiva de trabalho publicados (continente), em 2019, DGERT https://www.dgert.gov.pt/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/IRCT-pub.-2019.12.pdf (Accessed 01.07.2020)

[5] For a detailed analysis of collective bargaining in Portugal see Portugal: reforms and the turn to neoliberal austerity by Maria da Paz Campos Lima in Collective bargaining in Europe: towards an endgame, edited by Torsten Müller, Kurt Vandaele and Jeremy Waddington, ETUI, 2019

[6] Resolução do Conselho de Ministros n.º 90/2012

[7] Instrumentos de Regulamentação Coletiva de Trabalho Publicados Atualizado 25 Junho, 2020, DGERT https://www.dgert.gov.pt/instrumentos-de-regulamentacao-coletiva-publicados (Accessed 01.07.2020)

[8] Resolução do Conselho de Ministros n.º 43/2014

[9] Resolução do Conselho de Ministros n.º 82/2017

[10] Lei n.º 55/2014

[11] ibid

[12] Compromisso Tripartido para um Acordo de Concertação Social de Médio Prazo, CES January 2017

[13] Lei n.º 93/2019

[14] Calculated from Tables 14 and 15 Séries Cronológicas Quadros de Pessoal 2008 – 2018, Ministério do Trabalho, Solidariedade e Segurança Social June 2020. This calculation excludes 211,503 workers covered by Working Conditions Ordinances (Portarias de condições de trabalho – PCT previously PRT), which are government regulations setting pay and conditions for some groups of workers not covered by collective agreements. http://www.gep.mtsss.gov.pt/documents/10182/10928/seriesqp_2008_2018.pdf/cf513838-2724-4195-8763-4d58400df0b9 (Accessed 15.07.2020)

[15] Relatório Anual sobre a Evolução da Negociação Coletiva em 2018 Centro de Relações Laborais, 2019 http://cite.gov.pt/pt/destaques/complementosDestqs2/CRL_Relatorio_NC_2018.pdf (Accessed 01.07.2020)

[16] Relatório Anual sobre a Evolução da Negociação Coletiva em 2018 and Séries Cronológicas Quadros de Pessoal 2008 – 2018

[17] See CES website http://www.ces.pt/concertacao-social/acordos (Accessed 01.07.2020)

[18] Labour Code Article 491, as amended by Lei n.º 23/2012

[19] Livro Verde sobre as Relações Laborais, Ministério do Trabalho, Solidariedade e Segurança Social, December 2016

[20] Relatório Anual sobre a Evolução da Negociação Coletiva em 2018 Centro de Relações Laborais, 2019 http://cite.gov.pt/pt/destaques/complementosDestqs2/CRL_Relatorio_NC_2018.pdf (Accessed 01.07.2020)

[21] Relatório sobre regulamentação coletiva de trabalho publicada no ano de 2019 DGERT, February 2020 https://www.dgert.gov.pt/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Relat%C3%B3rio-anual-RCT-2019-DGERT.pdf (Accessed 01.07.2020)

[22] Relatório Anual sobre a Evolução da Negociação Coletiva em 2018 Centro de Relações Laborais, 2019

[23] Labour Code Article 273.

There are two channels of workplace representation of employees for most issues – through union representatives at the workplace and through an elected works council. However, in practice works councils are relatively rare. The rights of works councils are limited to information and consultation, with no opportunity to block management decisions.

The Portuguese Labour Code provides for two channels of workplace representation: trade union delegates, representing trade unionists, who may come together in a trade union committee (comissão sindical) or joint trade union committee (comissão intersindical), and the works council (comissão de trabalhadores – CTs), representing the whole workforce. There are also health and safety representatives.

The establishment of a works council is not automatic. It requires a majority of employees to vote in favour, in a ballot requested by 100 employees or 20% of the workforce. The rules of the works council must also be approved in a vote.

In practice, works councils are relatively rare, although the statistics are somewhat contradictory. The 2016 green paper on industrial relations stated that, at the end of 2015 across the whole of Portugal, there were only 191 active works councils, defined as being constituted with current members in post. This is similar to the 196 recorded in a similar publication in 2007.[1] However, the CGTP, the largest union confederation, noted, in its report to its 2020 congress that it had details of 1,551 private and public sector companies where works councils had been established, although not all of them were still active.[2] Nevertheless, it was able to identify 295 active works councils where its members were present. One reason for this difference in numbers may be that the union is also counting sub-works councils. Each company can only have one works council, irrespective of its size.

Whatever the precise numbers it seems clear that the extent of works councils in Portugal is limited. Eurostat figures show that in 2017 there were 6,365 companies with 50 or more employees in Portugal in 2017, but figures from the Ministry of Labour and Social Solidarity for 2018 and 2019 show that just 421 works council members and 333 sub-works council members were elected in 2018, and only 295 works council and 210 sub-works council members in 2019.[3]

There are no similar figures on the number of union delegates and trade union committees at the workplace. However, they appear to be much more common. The CGTP’s report to its 2020 congress states that 12,745 new trade union delegates were elected at workplaces during the four years 2016 to 2020. This is more than five time the number of members of works councils it reports – 2,364.

An indication of the overall extent of employee representation at the workplace is provided by the results of Eurofound’s 2013 European Company Survey. These show that, in 2013, only 8% of establishments in Portugal with at least 10 employees had some form of official employee representation, either a union delegate, a union committee or a works council. This is the lowest percentage in the EU, and only a quarter of the EU28 average of 32%. As elsewhere in Europe, larger organisations were much more likely to have such a structure than smaller ones. The survey shows that 63% of establishments with more than 250 employees had representation, but only 25% of those with between 50 and 249 employees. In smaller workplaces in Portugal, those with between 10 and 49 employees, the survey indicates that just over one in twenty (6%) had employee representation.[4]

Numbers and structure

It is up to the trade unions and the members in the workplace to decide on the number of trade union delegates they want to elect. However, there are legal limits on the number who can benefit from specific legal rights and protections. These are linked to the number of union members (see table).

Number of union members	Number of union delegates with rights
less than 50	1
50-99	2
100-199	3
200-499	6

Above 500 union members there is one extra trade union delegate with protection for each additional 200 members.

If there are sufficient union delegates – there are no precise rules on this – they come together in a committee. Where there are several unions in a workplace, fairly common because of the structure of Portuguese unions (see section on unions), they may form a joint union committee, provided it has at least five union delegates or all the separate union committees in the workplace. These committees adopt their own rules of procedure.

Works councils consist only of employee representatives. There is no management involvement. By law, they can be set up in any company, included public sector companies, at the request of the employees, although in practice they are mostly in bigger organisations. There can only be one works council in any company. But sub-works councils can be set up in individual workplaces.

The number of members of the works council varies with the size of the company (see table). Teleworkers are included fully in calculating the number of employees and workers on fixed-term contracts are included in the calculation on the basis of the average number in place at the end of each month in the previous financial year. However, temporary agency workers are not included.[5] There is no indication that part-time workers are not fully counted.

Number of employees	Number of works council members
Fewer than 50	2
50-200	3
201-500	3-5
501-1000	5-7
1000+	7-11

The number of members of sub-works councils also varies with the size of the workplace (see table).

Number of employees	Number of sub-works council members
Fewer than 50	1
50-200	3
201+	5

The are no rules on how frequently the works council should meet, but it must meet management at least once a month. The general rules of the works council (statutes) must be approved in a vote of the whole workforce.

Tasks and rights

A key part of the role of the trade union delegates is to provide a link between union members and the union, through recruitment and campaigning activity.

In the area of collective bargaining, trade union delegates ensure that existing collective agreements are properly applied; and, in the minority of companies where there is a company-level agreement, may be involved in collective bargaining. In most cases any agreement reached will need to be ratified formally by the union, although in companies with more than 150 employees (previously 500) trade union delegates, like works councils in companies of the same size, can now sign their own collective agreements (see section on collective bargaining).

Trade union delegates are entitled to information on “recent and probable development of the employer’s activities and economic situation” and information and consultation on “the situation, structure and probable development of employment”, as well as measures planned to maintain staffing levels, together with “measures likely to lead to substantial changes in work organisation”. This wording is in line with the EU framework directive on information and consultation (2002/14/EC). This information is to be requested in writing by the trade union delegates and by law it must be provided within eight to 15 days depending on its complexity. They must also specifically be informed about the use of temporary contracts and any reduction in work breaks.

In addition, if there is no works council, the trade union delegates should be informed and consulted on working hours, hours for interns, holiday arrangements, redundancy proposals, dismissals linked to capability, works rules and temporary close downs. It must also be informed of individual dismissals, if there is no works council, and can express its point of view.

The trade union committee or the joint trade union committee has the right to call all employees to a meeting in works time, subject to giving 48 hours’ notice and without prejudicing essential operations. The total time of such meetings may not exceed 15 hours a year.

The role of the works council is largely advisory and consultative. It does not have the decision-making or veto powers which exist elsewhere in Europe.

As set out in the Labour Code, its general rights at the workplace are to:[6]

• receive the information necessary to carry out its activities;
• exercise some control over the company's management;
• participate, with others, in company restructuring, in the preparation of occupational training plans and reports and in procedures related to changes in working conditions; and
• manage or participate in the management of the company's social provision (such as canteens).

The information it must receive covers:

• general activity and budget plans;
• the organisation of production and its likely impact on levels of employment and equipment utilisation;
• the supply position;
• forecasts and levels of sales;
• personnel management (including specifically workers on temporary contracts) and the establishment of basic criteria such as the overall wage bill and its distribution by occupational group, social benefits, productivity and absenteeism;
• the financial situation, including the balance sheet and profit and loss account;
• financing methods;
• tax and other similar charges; and
• any plans to change the purposes, share capital or activities of the company.

This information is to be requested in writing by the works council and it must be provided within eight to 15 days depending on its complexity.

The employer is required to consult with the works council as soon as possible on:

• changes in the criteria used for occupational classification and employee promotion;
• relocation of the company or workplaces within it;
• anything that could produce a significant reduction in the number of employees, a major worsening of working conditions; or changes in work organisation; and
• the dissolution or insolvency of the company.

This consultation should be in writing and the works should respond to the company’s request within 10 days or within a longer period if the issue is complex.

The purpose of the limited control over management, set out in the Labour Code, is to promote “the responsible commitment of workers to the company's activity”. The works council is able to:

• assess and issue its opinion of the company's budget and its changes, as well as to monitor how it is implemented;
• promote the appropriate use of technical, human and financial resources;
• promote measures that contribute to the improvement of the company's activity, particularly in relation to the use of equipment and administrative simplification;
• make suggestions and proposals to the company on initial qualification and further training as well as on the improvement of working conditions, particularly health and safety at work; and
• defend the legitimate interests of workers with the management and supervisory bodies of the company and the competent authorities.

In the specific area of restructuring the works council has a right to:

• advance information and consultation on initial restructuring plans or proposals;
• information on the final form of the restructuring planned and the opportunity to present its views before the plans are approved;
• meet those in charge of preparatory restructuring work; and
• make suggestions, complaints or criticisms to the company’s management bodies.

The works council should also be consulted about changes in working hours, the hours for interns (student workers), holiday arrangements, redundancy proposals, works rules, and temporary work closures. It is also involved in individual dismissals, where it can express its point of view. It must be asked for its opinion on any use of biometric data or remote surveillance and informed of any reduction in work breaks. It must also be consulted about health and safety issues if there are no separate health and safety representatives.

Sub-works councils have broadly similar rights, although at the level of an individual workplace rather than the whole company.

In practice, works councils often find it difficult to ensure that they are given all the information they should receive or are consulted sufficiently.

The works council also has the right to call meetings of all employees under similar terms to those for the trade union. As with the meetings called by the union delegates, employees have a right to 15 hours a year for meetings called by the works council.

In most cases, the works council will not be involved in collective bargaining, where the unions normally have the sole right to represent the employees. However, changes to the labour code in 2009 permitted the works council to negotiate with the employer where the company employs at least 500 people, provided this has been expressly permitted by the union and in 2012 the threshold was lowered to 150 (see section on collective bargaining).

The situation described above relates to companies in both the public and private sectors. The situation is similar in public administration, following legislation introduced in 2009.[7]

Election and term of office

Trade union delegates are elected in a secret ballot by the trade union members at their workplace. The detailed rules of the election are laid down by the unions, although the employer should be given the names of the successful candidates, and the term of office cannot be more than four years.

Works council members are elected by the entire workforce and must themselves be employees. (In practice they are frequently also trade union delegates). The Labour Code makes clear that all workers “regardless of age or function”, have the right to take part in the elections both as candidates and as voters.[8] Nominations must be supported by at least 100 employees or 20% of the workforce, and voting is on the basis of a list system. Unions have no special nominating rights in these elections, but the lists of candidates are often linked to one of the union groupings. In its report to its 2020 congress, the CGTP reported that in a sample of 33 works councils 58.8% of the voters backed lists identified with the CGTP and 36.9% backed other lists.

Elections must take place at least every four years, although the precise period is fixed in the rules of each works council, which should be voted on by the entire workforce. There is no limit on the number of times that works council members can be re-elected.

Protection against dismissal

In general, all types of employee representative, whether union delegates, works council members or health and safety representatives are given the same level of protection under the Labour Code. Employers may not dismiss, transfer or act in any way to the detriment of a representative carrying out his or her functions.[9]

Trade union delegates and members of the works council can be dismissed for misconduct and if they if their skills and work are considered to be inadequate. However, the initial assumption is that their dismissal is unfair. The works council must be informed and consulted through the process of any dismissal and if the worker facing dismissal is a union representative, the union must also be informed. Failure to follows the procedure in the case of a union delegate is held to be more serious than in dismissals where this is not the case. The protections provided to employee representatives also extend to candidates for and those who have held office in the previous three years.

If the dismissal of an employee representative is found to be unfair, the compensation is set by the court at a rate of between 30 and 60 days per year of service and cannot be less than six months’ pay.[10]

Time off and other resources

Trade union delegates are entitled to five hours a month paid time off – eight if they are in a joint committee with several unions

In addition, members of the executive of a union body, from local unions to national confederations, are entitled to four days paid time off per month on the following basis.

Number of union members	Number of union executives with right to four days’ time off per month
less than 50	1
50-99	2
100-199	3
200-499	4
500-999	6
1,000-1,999	7
2,000-4,999	8
5,000 -9,999	10
10,000+	12

These amounts can be combined and used by a smaller number of executives, provided the overall total is not exceeded. This allows senior union executives to work full time for their union but continue to be paid by their employer

Trade union delegates in companies or workplaces with more than 150 employees are entitled to the use of a permanent office within the company “appropriate to the exercise of their functions”. In smaller companies or workplaces, they are entitled to use an office as required. The also have the right to use of a noticeboard for union information and to distribute information from the union.

Works council members are entitled to 25 hours paid time-off a month, but only half this in very small companies. In companies with more than 1,000 employees, the members of the works council can agree that the total amount of time off, worked out on the basis of each member having 25 hours a month, can be divided as they wish. However, in these circumstances no single member of the works council can have more than 40 hours, other than in publicly owned companies of this size, where one works council can be freed from normal duties for half their total hours.

Time-off rights cannot be accumulated between the three different types of employee representation: union structures in the workplace, works councils and representatives for health and safety. For example, a works council member who is also a trade union delegate cannot add together the time off for the two functions. In all three cases, the employer should be informed at least two days in advance of the intention to take time off, except where there are unexpected reasons for doing so.

Works councils are entitled to the use of "adequate" premises as well as the material and technical support necessary for them to carry out their work.

Training rights

There are no training rights for employee representatives. Neither union delegates nor members of the works council have a legal right to paid time-off for training. However, unions have the right to participate in training linked to company restructuring.

Group representation

There is no formal structure for group level representation. However, there can only be one works council in any company. Where there are several workplaces, they set up sub-works councils and send representatives to the company works council.

The law also provides for coordinating councils of workers, who bring together works councils from different companies with the aim of creating links between them and having a positive role in economic restructuring. They may not have more members than the number of works councils they are coordinating, up to a maximum of 11, and the members are entitled to 20 hours off a month. However, figures on the number of members of coordinating councils elected each year show that they are very rare. In 2018 only 22 members were elected, and in 2019 only 11.[11]

[1] Livro Verde sobre as Relações Laborais, Gabinete de Estratégia e Planeamento do Ministério do Trabalho, Solidariedade e Segurança Social, December 2016 http://cite.gov.pt/pt/destaques/complementosDestqs2/LIVRO_VERDE_2016.pdf (Accessed 01.07.2020) and Livro Branco das Relações Laborais, Ministerio do Trabalho e da Solidariedade Social, November 2007

[2] Relatório de Actividades (Mandato 2016-2020) http://www.cgtp.pt/xiv-congresso/documentos/relatorio-de-actividades (Accessed 01.07.2020)

[3] DGERT website September 2019 https://www.dgert.gov.pt/organizacoes-do-trabalho-membros-eleitos-por-genero and June 2020 https://www.dgert.gov.pt/organizacoes-do-trabalho-membros-eleitos-por-sexo-dados-de-2019 (Accessed 23.07.2020)

[4] Eurofound (2015), Third European Company Survey – Overview report: Workplace practices – Patterns, performance and well-being, Figures for Table 44

[5] Articles 146, 171 and 189 of the Labour Code

[6] Article 423 and following Labour Code

[7] Guiao: Comissões de Trabalhadores (constituição e eleição dos seus membros), direção-geral da administração e do emprego público July 2019 https://www.dgaep.gov.pt/upload//RCT/docs/Guiao_CT_21_ago_2019.pdf (accessed 01.07.2020)

[8] Article 415 Labour Code

[9] Article 406 Labour Code

[10] Articles 410 and 411 Labour Code

[11] DGERT website September 2019 https://www.dgert.gov.pt/organizacoes-do-trabalho-membros-eleitos-por-genero and June 2020 https://www.dgert.gov.pt/organizacoes-do-trabalho-membros-eleitos-por-sexo-dados-de-2019 (Accessed 23.07.2020)

There are constitutional provisions giving Portuguese employees the right to elect representatives on the governing bodies of state-owned companies and other public bodies. However, these provisions have been implemented in a way which means that they only have a consultative role, and relatively few state-owned companies are covered. There is no employee board level representation in private companies.

The Portuguese Constitution states in Article 54 that works councils “have the right … to promote the election of workers' representatives to the governing bodies of enterprises that belong to the state or other public entities, as laid down by law”.

The Labour Code similar states that the works council of a “ public corporate entity promotes the election of workers' representatives to the governing bodies” of that entity, and that the voting system shall be as set out in the Labour Code “in terms of the list of electors, voting sections, voting and counting of results”. However, it goes on to state that the number of employees to be elected, as well as the body on which they sit, are to be determined by the company’s own statutes (Article 428).

In practice, it appears that relatively few state-owned Portuguese companies have implemented these provisions. Research in 2011 found only a small number of state-owned companies – all but two in the health sector – with employee representatives on company bodies and in every case they were limited to a single individual on a consultative board “conselho consultivo”, whose duties are advisory.[1]

The legislation (a Decree Law) covering bodies in the health sector (Decreto-Lei n.º 18/2017, which replaced earlier legislation – Decreto-Lei n.º 233/2005) provides for one employee representative in a consultative board of seven or eight members. The election method is not specified, and the terms of office is three years. At the end of 2019, there were 41 hospitals and other local heath units which had the form of a public corporate entity “entidade pública empresarial”.[2]

The two public bodies outside the health sector with employee representatives on the consultative board are Comboios de Portugal (the railways), whose consultative board was established by Decreto-Lei n.º 137-A/2009, and Metropolitano de Lisboa (Lisbon metro), whose consultative board was established by Decreto-Lei n.º 148-A/2009. In Comboios de Portugal, the employee representative is one of six normal members, with the possibility of further co-options, and, in Metropolitano de Lisboa, one of 10. In neither company is the method for selecting the employee representative specified. Like other members of the consultative board, their period of office is three years, although, in the case of Metropolitano de Lisboa, this mandate can only be renewed up to three times.

Separate legislation, passed in 1976 and amended in 1984, which gave employees the right to elect one member of the board of directors in state-owned companies, was repealed in 1999.[3] The justification for the repeal at the time was in part that the number of state-owned companies had been greatly reduced and subsequent privatisations have further cut the number of companies owned by the state.

In the private sector, there is no effective legislation giving employees the right to be represented at board level. Legislation permits employee representation to be agreed between employers and unions, but in practice this does not happen.

[1] Based on research by Aline Conchon ETUI (March 2011) The companies with employee representatives in consultative boards at that time were 47 state-owned companies in the health sector (in accordance with art. 18 of the Decree-Law 233/2005 regulating the statutes of health state-owned companies), plus Metropolitano de Lisboa (Lisbon metro) and Comboios de Portugal (railways)

[2] List of state holdings, General Directorate of Treasury and Finance, http://www.dgtf.pt/centro-de-documentacao-e-legislacao?tabid=993 (Accessed 30.06.2020)

[3] This right was provided in Decreto-Lei n.º 260/76 and amended in Decreto-Lei n.º 29/84. It was finally abolished in Decreto Lei n.º 558/99

All Portuguese members of bodies concerned with European Works Councils or European Companies are chosen in the same way – appointed by agreement with the works council and the unions, or by the unions if there is no works council, and they represent sufficient employees.

European Works Councils

Portuguese members of the special negotiating body of an EWC are appointed by agreement between the works council and the unions, provided the unions represent at least 5% of the employees. If there are no unions, the works council chooses the Portuguese members. The unions can choose the members, provided that in total they represent at least two-thirds of the employees, or, where this cannot be shown, provided that each union involved represents at least 5% of the employees involved. Unions representing less than 5% of the employees can together choose one of their number to participate in choosing the Portuguese members of the SNB. If there is no agreement, or the unions do not represent 5% of the employees, or if a third of the employees require it, the members of the SNB are elected by the employees as a whole. Candidates must be nominated by at least 100 employees or 10% of the workforce. The law does not state whether Portuguese members of the SNB have to be employees.

The procedure is the same for members of an EWC set up under the fall back procedures in the annex to the directive.

European Company

Portuguese members of the special negotiating body of a European Company are appointed by agreement between the works council and the unions, provided the unions represent at least 5% of the employees. If there are no unions, the works council chooses the Portuguese members. The unions can choose the members, provided that in total they represent at least two-thirds of the employees, or, where this cannot be shown, provided that each union involved represents at least 5% of the employees involved. Unions representing less than 5% of the employees can together choose one of their number to participate in choosing the Portuguese members of the SNB. If there is no agreement, or the unions do not represent 5% of the employees, or if a third of the employees require it, the members of the SNB are elected by the employees as a whole. Candidates must be nominated by at least 100 employees or 10% of the workforce. The law specifically states that a union representative who is not an employee can be one of the Portuguese members of the SNB.

The procedure is the same for Portuguese members of the SE representative body, set up under the fallback arrangements in the annex to the directive, although here there is no provision for non-employees to be members.

The same rules apply to employee representatives from Portugal taking seats on the board of a company under the fallback provisions in the annex.

The health and safety representation of employees in Portugal is provided by specially elected health and safety representatives. They should meet the employer at least once a month and have the right to be consulted in writing and in advance and in good time on a range of issues at least once a year. Joint employer/employee health and safety committees can be set up where there is a collective agreement to that effect.

Basic approach at workplace level

Employers should ensure that employees work in conditions that protect their health and safety and any obligations imposed on employees do not remove the overall responsibility of the employer.

Employee health and safety bodies

Employees in Portugal have a legal right to elect employee representatives for safety and health at work (representantes dos trabalhadores para a segurança e a saúde no trabalho). It is also possible to set up joint employer/employee safety and health committees (comissões de segurança e saúde no trabalho), where a collective agreement provides for this.

Numbers and structure

There is no minimum threshold for the election of health and safety representatives. In other words, they can be elected at all companies. As the number of employees increases, the legislation provides for a larger number of health and safety representatives up to a maximum of seven (see table). However, it is important to note that these thresholds relate to companies not to workplaces. There are examples where a single company has a large number of separate workplaces but still only has the number of health and safety representatives set out in the table.

Number of employees	Number of health and safety representatives
Up to 60	1
61 to 150	2
151 to 300	3
301 to 500	4
501 to 1,000	5
1,001 to 1,500	6
More than 1,500	7

Collective agreements can, however, provide for a larger number of health and safety representatives.

The legislation also allows for the creation of joint health and safety committees, with an equal number of employee and employer representatives, but a collective agreement is needed to set them up. The employee members are the elected health and safety representatives

Research by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work in 2014 found that 24% of workplaces in Portugal had health and safety representatives and 11% had a health and safety committee. These figures are both well below the EU-28 averages, which are 58% for health and safety representatives and 21% for health and safety committees. (The results relate to workplaces with five or more employees.)[1]

Tasks and rights

At least once a year, health and safety representatives should be consulted in writing and in advance or in good time on the following issues:

• risk assessments, including for those facing special risks;
• the implementation of health and safety measures – if possible before implementation;
• technological changes which have a health and safety impact;
• health and safety training;
• the appointment of employees with particular health and safety functions;
• the appointment of those responsible for first aid, fire fight and evacuation;
• the use of external health and safety services; protective equipment; and
• a list of fatal and serious accidents (causing at least three days’ absence), together with any reports on them.

In providing this information, the employer should give the health and safety representatives access to the appropriate technical and medical reports (which should not identify individuals) as well as any external reports. The health and safety representatives should respond to the material within a period of 15 days, which may be extended if the material is complex. The initial consultation material and the responses to it should be recorded in a register held by the company.

Health and safety representatives also have the right to make their own proposals to reduce occupational risks.

Health and safety representative should also be specifically informed about temporary workers and consulted about the health effects of night working.

Frequency of meetings

Health and safety representatives have the right to meet management at least once a month to discuss issues related to health and safety.

Election and term of office

Safety representatives are elected by all employees with nominations coming from unions or at least 20 % of the workforce. The legislation contains very detailed provisions covering the election procedure.

The term of office is three years.

Resources, time off and training

Health and safety representatives have a right to five hours’ time off a month, which does not include the time spent in meetings.

Health and safety representatives should have the material and technical resources necessary to carry out their duties, as well as the right to distribute information about health and safety issues and to display material in an appropriate room.

They also have a right to training in order to carry out their functions. In some cases this training may be supported by the public authorities.

Protection against dismissal

Health and safety representatives should not be dismissed or suffer other disadvantages as a result of their duties and the Labour Code provides for specific protection against dismissal or transfer.

Other elements of workplace health and safety

All but the smallest employers are required to set up a health and safety service, which in most cases can be internal, external or a common service shared by a number of employers. However, larger organisations – those with 400 or more employees – and organisations, where at least 30 employees are exposed to higher levels of risk, must set up an internal health and safety service, using their own employees. (Activities considered to involve higher levels of risk include construction, mining and quarrying, steelmaking and working with dangerous chemicals.) Employers are able to ask the authorities for exemption from the requirement to have an internal health and safety service if the operations do not involve high risks and they can demonstrate accident rates and rates of occupational illness that are below the average for the sector in which they work.

External health and safety services must be authorised by the Authority for Working Conditions (see below), and where an employer uses an external or a communal health and safety service, he or she must designate an employee with appropriate training, to help with the monitoring and implementation of the organisation’s health and safety work.

In organisations which do not employ more than nine employees and are not high risk, the employer can ask for authorisation to undertake health and safety work in the company, provided he or she has the appropriate training. Alternatively the employer can designate an employee to do this work.

National context

The ministry responsible for health and safety at work is the Ministry of Labour, Solidarity and Social Security (Ministro do Trabalho, Solidariedade e Segurança Social – MTSSS). The body responsible for ensuring compliance with health and safety law in Portugal is the Authority for Working Conditions (Autoridade para as Condições do Trabalho – ACT) which also monitors compliance with labour law more generally and has a role in resolving industrial disputes.

Trade unions and employers are able to influence health and safety policy at national level through their membership of Consultative Council for the Promotion of Health and Safety at Work (Conselho Consultivo para a Promoção da Segurança e Saúde no Trabalho). This is the consultative body for the Authority for Working Conditions. Unions and employers are also member of two tripartite bodies with a wider remit, the Economic and Social Council (Conselho Económico e Social – CES) and the Permanent Commission for Social Dialogue (Comissão Permanente de Concertação Social – CPCS).[2]

The main Portuguese health and safety legislation of 2009 refers specifically to psychosocial risks, including the obligation “to reduce psychosocial risks” to the list of ways that the employer should adapt the work to the individual (Article 15 (2)). This was further emphasised in later legislation passed in January 2014 (Lei n.º 3/2014), which requires the employer to ensure that exposure to “chemical, physical and biological agents and psychosocial risk factors do not constitute a risk to workers’ health and safety” (Article 14 (2)).

Key legislation

Law No. 102/2009 the legal arrangements for the promotion of occupational safety and health 10 September 2009 (and subsequent amendments)

Labour code 2009 (and subsequent amendments)

Lei n.º 102/2009 de 10 de Setembro: Regime jurídico da promoção da segurança e saúde no trabalho

Código do trabalho 2009

[1] Second European Survey of Enterprises on New and Emerging Risks, European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, 2016

[2] For more information on the national context see OSH system at national level – Portugal, by José Miquel Cabeças, OSH Wiki https://oshwiki.eu/wiki/OSH_system_at_national_level_-_Portugal

Lack of precise data makes it difficult to give figures of trade union membership in Portugal and there is a large gap between the figures provided by the unions and the estimate produced by the OECD, which is that union density is 13.9%. There are two main trade union confederations, the CGTP-IN and the UGT, whose relationship was initially marked by conflict rather than co-operation but has now improved. Trade union structures are complex with around 400 autonomous individual unions.1

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Union density and structure

There are around a million trade union members in Portugal, according to figures provided by the unions themselves, although OECD estimate for union density suggest a figure of around 600,000.

There are two main union confederations in Portugal. The largest is the CGTP-IN (often just known as the CGTP), whose general secretary stated it had 562,500 members, in an interview before its five-yearly Congress in 2024.2 The second largest is the UGT, which stated that it had 435,000 members in its report to its five-yearly Congress in 2022.3 There are also some much smaller confederations, like the USI and the CGSI, as well as two confederations, CPQTC and FENSIQ, which bring together unions representing more senior staff. There are also several smaller independent unions, outside the main confederations. (see Individual unions).

A Eurofound report on the representativeness of union confederations, published in 2023 and based on data collected in 2021 and 2022, estimated the CGTP’s membership at 556,363, the UGT’s at 450,000 and USI’s at between 25,000 to 30,000.4

With 4.75 million employees in Portugal in 2024 (4.0 million in the private and 750,000 in the public sector5), these figures suggest a union density figure of around 22%.

However, the OECD estimates a much lower figure for union density in Portugal of 13.9% in 2020, based on an estimate of total active trade union membership (excluding the retired) of 576,000.6

There are no national official estimates of union density for the whole economy, but the Office for Planning and Strategy (GEP) in the Ministry of Labour and Social Solidarity (MTSS) produces regular figures on union density in the private sector. Figures published in 2026 show union density in the private sector at 7.0% in 2024. As in other countries, larger workplaces are likely to have higher levels of union density (14.3%) for those with more than 250 employees, but only 2.8% for those with 10 to 49.7 However, this may be an underestimate, as the figures are compiled from reports submitted by the employers (Relatório Único e Quadros de Pessoal), who only know about union members who pay their subscription via the employer, not those who pay directly to the union.

There are no published figures for union density in public administration, where it is certainly higher.

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Individual unions

The problems in establishing accurate membership figures are, in part, explained by the fragmented and complex structure of trade unionism in Portugal. The database of the Ministry of Labour and Social Solidarity listed 400 active union organisations of all types in mid-July 2026.8 These include the confederations, plus 17 federations, which are industry based and 23 unions (uniões), which normally operate at a regional level, but the remainder were independent unions (sindicatos).

The CGTP provides an example of this complexity and fragmentation. In the report presented to its 2024 congress, it stated that there were 79 unions that are directly affiliated to it, but there were another 45 unions which are not affiliated but cooperate with it either on a regular basis (18 unions) or on an issue-by-issue basis (27).

This wider group of 124 unions, known as the MSU (Movimento Sindical Unitário), breaks down between 61 which operate at national level, 59 which operate at a local level – mostly covering several districts, two which operate outside Portugal and two based in the Azores. In terms of the type of membership, 37 are occupationally based unions, 82 are industrially based unions and six are a mixture of the two.9 The CGTP’s largest single individual affiliate is the local government union STAL, whose stated membership is 56,000 and which operates across Portugal at national level.10

In the 1990s and early 2000s the CGTP made considerable progress in rationalising these structures by getting unions to merge, reducing the number of separate unions affiliated to it from 152 in 1993 to 79 by 2020, a number that remained constant at the 2024 Congress. The CGTP’s 10 industry federations and its 22 regional bodies now provide a much clearer structure for organisation. The FENPROF teachers’ federation, for example, is made up of seven separate regionally based unions, one each in the north, the centre and the south of the country, one in Lisbon, one in the Azores, one in Madeira and one for teachers outside Portugal.11 FENPROF is also part of the CGTP’s group of unions in the public sector, Frente Comun (Common Front).

Overall, the CGTP organises the majority of trade unionists other than in finance and energy and it is strongest in manufacturing and the public sector.

The UGT also has a similar structure of 20 regionally based unions, and seven industry-based federations, and 50 individual unions (some industry and some occupationally based).12 Most of its 50 unions are national but there are some, such as those for bank employees and teachers which only cover part of the country. (There are bank unions for the north, centre and the south of the country and the islands, for example.) Like the CGTP, the UGT has unions which, while not affiliated, work with it. There are 25 of these.

The UGT has most members in the services sector, both private and public, and is particularly strong in banking and insurance. Mais (formerly SBSI), which represents bank employees in the south of the country and the islands, is one of the UGT’s largest affiliates. It reported to its general council in 2023 that it had 34,118 members in 2022.13

As well as the two main confederations, the CGTP and the UGT, the much smaller confederation, the USI, lists 11 affiliated unions on its website.14

There are also more than 150 unions which not linked to any of the confederations, and the tendency not to affiliate appears to be growing. As an article in 2025 noted, “the many dozens of unions created in recent years have, with rare exceptions, not affiliated to the confederations”.15 Although some of these new unions, such as a nurses’ union, ASPE (founded in 2017) and a lorry drivers’ union SNMMP (founded in 2018), have been involved in important strikes, the overall impact has been increase union fragmentation.16

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Legal framework

Trade union freedoms are set out in Article 55 of the Portuguese Constitution, which states, among other things, that workers have the freedom “to form, belong to and operate trade unions … in defence of their rights and interests”. The same article also states that “trade unions shall be independent of employers, the state, religious beliefs, and parties and other political associations, and the law must lay down the guarantees that are appropriate to that independence”.17

Trade union rights, and the rights of employers’ associations, are set out in greater detail in the Labour Code (articles 440 to 475).18 In article 443, this sets out their general rights to:

• enter into collective bargaining agreements;
• provide economic and social services to their members;
• participate in the drafting of labour legislation;
• initiate and intervene in judicial proceedings and administrative procedures concerning the interests of their members; and
• establish relations or affiliate, nationally or internationally, with organisations of workers.

This section of the Labour Code also covers their rights in the workplace such as time off.

In broad terms, while trade unions must be registered and must have democratic rules, the state does not interfere in unions’ internal regulation.

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Political position

There are important political differences between the two main confederations. The CGTP-IN emerged after the 1974 revolution and initially had close links with the communist party. The UGT was set up in 1978 to provide an alternative to the CGTP's political approach by establishing, as its own history states, trade unions with links to social democratic and liberal-conservative parties.19 As a result, relations between the two confederations were initially very strained. However, since the late 1980s the position has improved considerably, although clear differences remain.

The CGTP is also more willing to take strike action in support of its positions than the UGT. However, in December 2025, both confederations called their members out on strike against government plans to change employment rights, the co-called labour package.20 This was the first time the two confederations both called a general strike since 2013.

One key difference is two confederations’ attitudes towards national tripartite agreements signed with the employers and the government in the Standing Committee for Social Concertation (CPCS), the national body that brings together representatives of the government, the employers and the unions see Joint employer union body at national level). The CGTP consistently refuses to sign such agreements, arguing that they perpetuate low-pay and inequality.21 The UGT, on the other hand is willing to do so, where it sees benefits for its members and workers more generally.

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Membership trends

The lack of detailed information makes it difficult to judge union membership developments in Portugal. However, the figures from the Ministry of Labour and Social Solidarity (MTSS), which cover union density in the private sector, although with some gaps, show an almost continuous fall from 9.2% in 2014 to 7.0% in 2024.22

The same pattern is found in the OECD figures on union density, dropping from 18.2% in 2010 to 13.9% in 2020.23

It seems clear that while union membership has grown in some areas, particularly the public sector, membership has been adversely affected by the loss of jobs in manufacturing, and, following the financial crisis, in banking and insurance.

Both the CGTP and the UGT have adopted programmes at their recent congresses aiming to increase their membership. The CGTP reporting at its 2024 congress that it had recruited 102,501 new members in the previous four years.24

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Women

There are no official figures on union density for men and women. Figures provide to the ETUC gender equality survey show that women make up 52% of the membership of the CGTP (2015) and 45% of the UGT’s membership (2018).25

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Negotiations at industry level, between employers’ associations and the unions, have in the past been the most important element in Portugal’s bargaining arrangements, providing a high level of collective bargaining coverage at between 75% and 83%. However, fewer collective agreements are now negotiated each year, eroding real pay.26

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Collective bargaining coverage and structure

Collective bargaining coverage in Portugal is relatively high, although there are slight differences in the figures, depending on source used.

Figures drawn from the administrative records held by DGERT, the government directory covering labour relations, show that in 2025 three-quarters (75.5%) of those whose pay could be negotiated, were covered by collective bargaining.27 These are essentially employees in the private sector and state-owned enterprises, as most of those working in public administration have their pay set by statutory regulations rather than collective bargaining. The government directory, DGERT, is able to compile these figures as collective agreements, which must be supplied to the ministry of labour, must also contain information on the number of employees covered.

There are also separate figures on bargaining coverage, taken from the annual survey of employers (Quadros do Pessoal). These show that in October 2024 there were 2,777,229 employees in the private sector who were covered by a collective agreement and 576,907 who were not.28 This produces a figure for bargaining coverage of 82.8%

The OECD’s estimate of collective bargaining coverage, uses the Quadros do Pessoal figure, but is for 2023, when it was 83.3%.29

It is worth noting that all these figures are for so-called Continental Portugal and exclude the Azores and Madeira.

Portuguese legislation provides for three main types of collective agreement. These are:

• industry-level agreements (CCs), which can be signed at national, regional or local level;
• agreements covering several companies (ACs); and
• agreements at the level of a single company or a workplace (AEs).

Companies can also agree voluntarily to adhere to an already existing agreement by signing an acordo de adesão (AA).

In addition to these freely negotiated agreements, the legislation also provides for agreements to be extended to all employers and all employees in the industry concerned, through extension ordinances (PEs).

Where there are competing agreements covering the same group of employees, single company agreements (AEs) take precedence over multi-company agreements (ACs) and industry-level agreements (CCs), and multi-company agreements take precedence over industry-level agreements (Labour Code Article 482).30 Since 2012, it has been possible to change this order of precedence (see Allowing local variations), but this option seems hardly to have been used.

In practice, many more workers are covered by industry-level agreements than those signed at company level, either for individual companies or groups of companies, as Table 1 on coverage shows. The figures are taken from the annual survey of private sector employers (Quadros do Pessoal) and show the situation in October 2024.

Table 1: Coverage of collective agreements: 2024

Type of agreement	Number of employees covered	Percentage of employees
Company level (AE)	97,792	2.9%
Groups of companies (AC)	126,087	3.8%
Industry level (CC)	2,309,722	68.9%
Extension ordinances	243,628	7.3%
Total covered	2,777,229	82.8%
Total not covered	576,907	17.2%
Overall total	3,354,136	100.0%
Colecção Estatísticas:Quadros de Pessoal: 2024, Calculated from Table 127, Gabinete de Estratégia e Planeamento, Ministério do Trabalho, Solidariedade e Segurança Social https://www.dgcp.mtsss.gov.pt/documents/10182/10928/qp2024pub.pdf/1d6a087f-81e7-4074-b434-d0e4fcb57375

However, as the 2019 ETUI study on collective bargaining emphasises, figures on the number covered by collective agreements only provide part of the picture. Pay increases are normally negotiated when the agreement is signed, so unless there is an agreement every year, inflation means that real pay will fall. Figures on the proportion of workers covered by agreements negotiated in that year give a better indication of the dynamism of collective bargaining and here the situation is much less positive.

Overall, the annual report from the Centre for Labour Relations, a tripartite body supported by the ministry of labour and using figures from the labour directory (DGERT) found that just over a quarter (27.8%) of employees were covered by a collective published in that year. (Collective agreements must be registered with the labour directory and are published in the official bulletin.) This is well below the 75.5% of employees who were covered by a collective agreement based on the DGERT figures.

The same report also analyses the number of agreements published in 2025. It shows that there were more company than industry-level agreements, but that industry level agreements covered many more employees (see Table 2). The figures for agreements registered in 2025, which was broadly similar to previous years, show that 12 times as many employees were covered by industry-level as by company agreements (see table).

Table 2: Collective agreements published in 2025

Type of agreement	Number	Number of employees covered
Company level (AE)	135	65,409
Groups of companies (AC)	37	33,281
Industry level (CC)	105	786,329
Total	277	885,019
Source: Relatório Anual da Evolução da Negociação Coletiva em Portugal: 2025 Figures 35 and 38, CRL, 2026 https://www.crlaborais.pt/documents/10182/513439/RNC_2025_20260714/8160df08-f522-4d37-bce1-795c3657b5aa

In addition, in 2025, there were 22 cases where employers adhered to existing agreements (AAs), and 78 extension ordinances (PEs) plus one case where the working conditions aspects of an agreement had been extended, but not the pay elements (see Extending agreements).

These figures do not include agreements in public administration, which are recorded separately. The figures for 2024 show that 28% of public sector employees with employment contracts are directly covered by a collective agreement for public employers (ACEP) or have agreed to adhere to one (AA). 31

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Variations in collective bargaining coverage

With overall collective bargaining coverage in the private sector at 82.8% (based on the survey of employers’ figures), in most industries coverage is at 70% or higher. This is also the case in areas such as retail (92.9%) and hotels and catering (92.7%), where in other countries coverage is much lower. In both industries the high figures are the result of industry-level agreements with extensive coverage.

The exceptions, where coverage is lower, are water supply, sewerage and waste management (31.9%), administrative and support services (36.3%) publishing and broadcasting (53.5%), health, excluding the public sector, (60.6%) and real estate activities (63.2%).32

There are also some industries where company-level agreements signed either for single companies (AEs) or jointly by several companies (ACs) covered more workers than industry-level agreements (CCs). This is the case in financial services and telecommunications.

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Extending agreements

Collective agreements normally only apply to the signatory parties, the unions and the employers, either individually or as members of the employers’ association signing the agreement. However, they can, under Articles 514 and 516 of the Labour Code, be extended by to all employers and employees in the industry concerned, taking account of the “social and economic circumstances that justify it”.

This non-specific wording meant that in the past, extension of industry-level agreements was often almost automatic, but then was cut back sharply, under the terms of the financial bailout, during the so-called “Troika” period (see Trends in collective bargaining).

The current reasons for extending agreements are those set out in a resolution of the council of minister in 2017. This abandoned the previous approach, based on meeting specific criteria, replacing it with a broader policy of “promoting better levels of social cohesion and equality”, particularly gender equality.33 Employers, unions or individuals affected by an extension can still object to it on economic grounds, and, in these circumstances, it must be reviewed not just by the labour minister but also by a minister with economic responsibilities.

Under these new rules, the number of extensions has increased, although the 2025 total of 76 (excluding the extension covering only conditions) is down on the 86 extended in 2024 and the 118 extended in 2023.34

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Allowing local variations

There are only limited opportunities for individual companies to opt-out of industry-level agreements and set worse pay and conditions.

Legislation introduced in 2012 allowed changes in the relationship between agreements at different levels, so that, for example, pay at company level could be lower than the rates set in the industry agreement.35 However this hardly seems to have been used. There were just three cases in 2015 and fewer in subsequent years.36

The other possibility is for companies facing financial difficulties to suspend collective agreements.37 However, this can only be done with the agreement of the unions, and it has also barely been used. Between 2014 and 2025, there were only 19 cases where unions and employers have agreed to revoke an existing agreement.38

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Who negotiates?

In the Labour Code, the negotiating parties in Portugal are the unions and the employers, either individually or in employers' federations, and the union leadership signs the agreements. Collective bargaining begins when one party (normally the union) proposes the conclusion or revision of a collective agreement, and the other side must respond within 30 days (Labour Code articles 486 and 487). However, although the law in this way imposes a duty to negotiate, there is no obligation to reach an agreement.

The Labour Code does not include rules on the representativeness of unions, establishing which have a right to negotiate and sign agreements. All officially registered unions can negotiate and sign agreements, provided the employer is willing engage with them. In practice, figures from a major official study, the 2016 green paper on labour relations, show that most agreements are signed by unions linked to the two main confederations, CGPT and the UGT. 39

In many cases, two or more unions will sign identical or very similar agreements with an employer. The existence of these so-called “parallel” agreements distorts some of the statistics on the number agreements signed each year, although they can also have a real-world impact where the agreements differ in some of their terms, as employers can choose which to implement. In 2025, there were 73 parallel agreements, more than a quarter (26.3%) of the total of 277 published.40 Most were at company level.

While unions sign most agreements, revisions to the Labour Code from 2009 onwards have allowed the union to delegate the power to negotiate company-level collective agreements to employee representatives in the company. These can be either works councils or company level union bodies. The original threshold in 2009 was 500 employees, but in 2012 this was cut to 150.41 In general, this change seems to have had only a limited impact, as the union must agree to delegate its negotiating rights. However, there are some companies where collective bargaining is primarily conducted by the works council. The best-known example is Autoeuropa, Volkswagen’s plant in Portugal, which employs around 5,800 people.

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Industrial action

The right to strike is set out in Article 57 of the Portugues Constitution, which states that “the right to strike is guaranteed”, and that the law may not limit the scope of interests which can be defended through a strike.42 However, the law can define the conditions needed to ensure the safety and maintenance of equipment and facilities and minimum services needed to meet “essential social needs”.

The Labour Code covers industrial action in Articles 530 to 543.

After repeating the rights set out in the constitution (Article 530), it states that strikes are declared by unions (there is no obligation to hold a vote), although in companies without a union, a strike can be declared by majority vote in a general assembly of workers convened by 20% or 200 of the employees (Article 531).

Workers are represented during the strike by the unions or, where the strike has been called by a general assembly, by a specially elected committee (Article 532).

The unions or the strike committee have the right to organise pickets to peacefully workers to support the strike (Article 533).

At least five working days’ notice of the strike must be given to the employer as well as to the ministry of labour (Article 534). This notice must contain a proposal on how the safety and maintenance of equipment and facilities is to be ensured. In companies providing essential social services, such as medical services, telecommunications and transport, (a full list is provided in Article 537) the notice period is extended to 10 working days. In addition, in these companies, the notice must also set out and how minimum services are to be provided, if essential services are set to be affected.

Where the union and the employer disagree on the minimum level of service to be provided, the decision on the minimum level required is taken by the minister (either the ministry of labour or the minster responsible for the sector). If the company involved is state-owned, the decision on minimum services is taken by an independent tribunal. The definition of minimum services must always “respect the principles of necessity, adequacy, and proportionality”. The unions designate the workers to provide these minimum services, but, if they fail to do 24 hours before the start of the strike, the workers are designated by the employer (Article 538). If necessary, the government can compel a worker to provide minimum services (Article 541).

From the date the strike is announced, the employer may not replace the strikers with other workers, or subcontract their work to another company, unless this is necessary to provide minimum services or secure the safety and maintenance of equipment and facilities (Article 535).

During a strike, employment contracts are suspended, but this does not lead to a loss of other rights not linked directly to presence at work. (Article 536).

A strike ends when the two sides agree or when the union or strike committee agreed to end it (Article 539). Participation in a strike must not lead to discrimination and employers may not attempt to coerce employees not to take part. (Article 540).

Collective agreements can include provisions that limit strike action while the agreement is still valid (Article 542). However, such arrangements providing for a “peace obligation” are rare. The report on collective bargaining in 2025 found only three examples of this type, all linked to ports and transport.43

Article 544 restates the constitutional prohibition of the use of the lock-out by employers.

The ministry of labour publishes statistics on strikes, although these only cover the private sector.44 They show that in 2024, there were 219 strikes, 8% down on 2023, although higher than in 2022. These strikes involved 65,976 workers, an 8% increase on 2023, and a total of 89,294 days were lost due to strikes, 15% higher than in 2023 and 90% higher than the figure in 2022. The average number of days lost to strikes per 1,000 employees in 2024 was 27.2.

Most strikes were short. In 2024, 63.9% lasted a day and 22.4% lasted two to five days, and pay demands were the main reason for action, accounting for 58.2% of the total.

There are separate statistics on strikes in public administration, produced by the General Directorate of Public Administration and Employment.45 These show that there were 435 strikes called in the public sector in 2024, half the number recorded in 2023 (875) but 28% higher than the 341 which were reported in 2023. The figures do not include details of the total number of days lost. The majority of public sector strikes were in education, accounting for 261 of the total, with working conditions listed as a reason for action more frequently than wages. As in the private sector, most strikes were short, with 349 out of 435 (80%) lasting one day.

Figures for strike action in 2025 and 2026 may be higher because of protest action against government plans for changes to the labour code. This involved a general strike, called unusually by both more union confederations, CGTP and UGT on 11 December 2025.

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Length and timing of agreements

Negotiations on pay traditionally took place every year and lasted for 12 months. However, many now agreements remain in place for much longer. The report on collective bargaining from the Centre for Labour Relations for found that, of 258 agreements revised in 2025, only 105 (40.7%) had been in force for a year or less; 97 (37.6%) had been in force for between a year and two years; and 56 (21.7%) for more than two years.46

This is possible, either because they are valid for longer than 12 months or because they do not have an end date. Analysis of the 277 agreements published in 2025 found that only 153 (51.6%) had a stated end date, and for 41 (14.8% of the total) it was for longer than two years.47 Under Article 499 of the Labour Code, an agreement which has no stated length is assumed to be valid for a year and is to be renewed automatically for the same period.

The issue of how long and to what extent collective agreements continue to bind the parties after they have formally expired became a major issue during Troika” period, when legislation was introduced to reduce the length of agreements and make it easier for them to be ended (see Trends in collective bargaining).

This has subsequently been partially reversed, and Articles 500, 500-A and 501 of the Labour Code, while still allowing either party to end (denounce) an agreement, now require them to give reasons for doing so and make proposals for a new agreement. The party receiving the denunciation can contest these grounds with the president of the tripartite Economic and Social Council (CES) (see Joint employer union body at national level) and ask for arbitration. The Labour Code also ensures that the existing agreement continues to apply for a period of at least 12 months.

Collective agreements are reached through the year.

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Subjects covered in agreements

Agreements concentrate on pay rates and increases, although in industry-level agreements they generally set minimum rates rather than actual pay. However, as the annual report on collective bargaining in 2025 makes clear, they also cover many other issues.

These include working time, including the possibility of banking hours, night work, overtime and shift work, as well as the associated premia, temporary transfers, geographical mobility, occupational training, arrangements for ending or revising agreements, flexibility and additional social benefits.

Topics linked to equality and parental rights have become increasingly important in recent years, as have agreements on technology issues, such as remote working and data protection.48

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Minimum wage

Portugal has a national minimum wage (RMMG). Its existence is guaranteed in Article 59 of the Portuguese constitution, and detailed provisions are set out in Articles 273 to 275 of the Labour Code. It is normally increased each year in January.

The amount each year is set by legislation after consultation with the tripartite CPCS (see Joint employer union body at national level). The issues to be considered in fixing the amount include “the needs of workers, the rising cost of living, and the evolution of productivity, with a view to aligning them with the criteria of pay and price policy” (Article 273).

In practice, in the past it generally went up in line with expected inflation, but more recently there have been above-inflation increases as a result of a series of agreements in the tripartite CPCS.

Trends in collective bargaining

In terms of collective bargaining coverage, Portugal appears to have experienced only a slight decline – around 10 percentage points since 2010. Depending on the source, the proportion of private sector employees covered by collective bargaining (the pay of public sector employees is largely set by statute), has fallen either 92.0% in 2010 to 83.3% in 2023 (OECD figures) or from 85.4% in 2010 to 75.5% in 2024 (figures from Portuguese employment director DGERT).49

However, the apparent stability in the extent to which employee continue to be covered by collective bargaining, hides a much greater volatility in the extent to which they are covered by agreements which have been negotiated recently, providing pay that matches current prices.

The proportion of employees covered by agreements published in that year fell from 54.1% in 2010 to 10.0% in 2014. It subsequently recovered to 31.1% in 2018, before dropping to 13.7% during the Covid crisis in 2020. It has subsequently recovered, reaching 27.8% in 2024, but it is still only around half the level of 2010.

These sharp changes reflect the impact of the financial crisis that hit Portugal in 2010. The financial adjustment programme that followed required the Portuguese government to make major changes to collective bargaining. One was a dramatic reduction in the number of agreements that were extended to the beyond the signatory parties. These fell dramatically, dropping from 116 in 2010 to 12 in 2012 and reaching a record low of just nine in 2013. The numbers have subsequently recovered, reaching 118 in 2023 before dropping to 78 in 2025.50 Despite this coverage of recent agreements is still well below where it was before the crisis.

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Joint employer union body at national level

As well as the collective bargaining structure, Portugal has a tripartite body, the Standing Committee for Social Concertation (CPCS), in which the government, the employers and the two main union confederations, CGTP and UGT, are represented. The CPCS is part of the Economic and Social council (CES).51

Many of the key developments in employment legislation and government measures affecting the labour market have been preceded by agreements reached in the CPCS. Recent agreements have included the Tripartite Agreement on Wage Increases and Economic Growth 2025-2028, signed in 2024 and Strengthening the Medium-Term Agreement for Improving Wage Incomes and Competitiveness, signed in 2023.52 Both were aimed at increasing Portugues living standards and growing the economy.

However, although all these agreements were tripartite, in every case the sole union signatory was the UGT. None were signed by the CGTP.

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There are two channels of workplace representation of employees for most issues – through union representatives at the workplace and through an elected works council. However, in practice works councils are relatively rare, with local unions much more common. The rights of works councils are limited to information and consultation, with no opportunity to block management decisions.

The basic structure

The Portuguese Labour Code provides for two channels of workplace representation: trade union delegates, representing trade unionists, who may come together in a trade union committee (comissão sindical) or joint trade union committee (comissão intersindical), and the works council (comissão de trabalhadores – CT), representing the whole workforce. There are also health and safety representatives (see Health and safety representation).

The establishment of a works council is not automatic. It requires a majority of employees to vote in favour, in a ballot requested by 100 employees or 20% of the workforce. In practice, works councils are rare.

The main rights of trade unions at the workplace are set out in Articles 460 to 467 of the Labour Code; the rights of works councils in Articles 415 to 439, although there are many references to their rights and duties elsewhere in the Labour Code.

The extent of workplace representation

Overall, the extent of employee representation at the workplace is relatively limited. Figures from Eurofound’s European Working Conditions Survey 2024 show that just over one third (36%) of employees in Portugal have any sort of employee representation, either unions or works councils, at their workplace.53 This is considerably below the EU27 average of 53%.

There are similar results from Eurofound’s company survey carried out in 2019. This found that only 5.0% of workplaces in Portugal had employee representation, also well below the EU27 average which was 28.5%.54 (The survey is based on workplaces with 10 more employees.) As in other countries, larger workplaces are much more likely to have employee representation. In Portugal, 45.3% of workplaces with 250 or more employees had employee representatives, although this is still below the EU27 average of 75.5% for workplaces of this size.

There are no directly comparable national statistics. However, the annual survey of private sector employers produces figures on the proportion of companies whose workers are unionised and presumably have union representatives. The figures for 2024 show that overall, 3.9% of all companies had employees who were unionised, and that this increased from 1.7% for companies with fewer than 10 employees to 7.5% for those with 10 to 49 employees, 31.9% for those with 50 to 249 employees, and 70.0% for those with more than 250 employees.55

There are no comparable statistics for works councils (CTs) but the available evidence suggests they are uncommon. The Eurofound company survey, quoted above, stated that Portugal was one of the countries where “in a majority, if not all, establishments … that reported the presence of a body for employee representation, this is a trade union delegation”.

In fact, there seem to be around 200 works councils (CTs) in Portugal. An important official study on industrial relations, the 2016 green paper, identified only 191 active works councils at the end of 2015, plus another four coordinating works councils (see Group representation).56 This is similar to the 196 recorded in a similar publication in 2007.57 The CGTP, the largest union confederation, noted, in its report to its 2024 congress that it had details of members active in 270 works councils (CTs), although this may include some sub-works councils.58 Each company can only have one works council, irrespective of its size (see Numbers and composition).

A more recent figure is from a survey organised by the research body PRAXIS, which is close to the unions. It stated that in 2023 there were 201 works councils (CTs) active in the country.59

Whatever the precise numbers it seems clear that numerically works councils are less significant than unions. Figures from the ministry of labour for 2020 show that just 220 individuals were elected as full members of works councils and sub-works councils during the year. In contrast, 2,289 individuals were elected to the management board of unions (excluding confederations, federations and regional unions) during the same period.60

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The role of unions

As the figures make clear (see The extent of workplace representation), employees are much more likely to have a union than a works council (CT) at their workplace. However, even where a works council (CT) exists, unions in practice normally play an important role.

Unions have no special nominating rights in elections to works councils, but the lists of candidates are often linked to one of the union groupings. In its report to its 2024 congress, the largest Portuguese union confederation, the CGTP, reported that in a sample of 26 works councils 61.6% of the voters backed lists identified with the CGTP and 36.4% backed other lists.

Further evidence of the important role unions play in works councils is provided by a study on works councils published in 2025. This was based on a survey of 62 organisations, with replies primarily coming from works council coordinators or spokespersons. Almost nine out of 10 companies (87%) had unions, and a similar proportion of respondents (85.5%) were union members, with 39% holding union positions.

Where both unions and works councils were present in the same company, three-quarters of the responses (74%) considered that the relationship between the two was one of cooperation, and only a quarter that it reflected competition or conflict.

Although only one-third of works councils (CTs) in Portugal responded, the results are an indication of the role that unions play in their operations.

Numbers and composition

It is up to the trade unions and the members in the workplace to decide on the number of trade union delegates they want to elect. However, there are legal limits on the number who can benefit from specific legal rights and protections. These are linked to the number of union members – not employees (see Table1).

Table 1: Number of union delegates with rights

Number of union members	Number of union delegates with rights
Fewer than 50	1
50-99	2
100-199	3
200-499	6
500 or more	6 plus one for every 200 members or part thereof above 500

If there are sufficient union delegates – there are no precise rules on this – they come together in a committee. Where there are several unions in a workplace, fairly common because of the structure of Portuguese unions (see Union density and structure), they may form a joint union committee (Comissão Sindical Conjunta – CSC). These committees adopt their own rules of procedure.

Works councils consist only of employee representatives. There is no management involvement. By law, they can be set up in any company, included public sector companies, at the request of the employees, although in practice they are mostly in bigger organisations. There can only be one works council in any company. But sub-works councils can be set up in individual workplaces.

The number of members of the works council varies with the size of the company (see Table 2). Teleworkers are included fully in calculating the number of employees and workers on fixed-term contracts are included in the calculation based on the average number in place at the end of each month in the previous financial year. However, temporary agency workers are not included (Articles 146, 171 and 189 of the Labour Code). There is no indication that part-time workers are not fully counted.

Table 2: Number of works council members

Number of employees	Number of works council members
Fewer than 50	2
50-200	3
201-500	3-5
501-1000	5-7
1000+	7-11

The number of members of sub-works councils also varies with the size of the workplace (see Table 3).

Table 2: Number of members of sub-works councils

Number of employees	Number of sub-works council members
Fewer than 50	1
50-200	3
201+	5

The operation of the local union and works council

The operation of the local union body depends on the rules of the union concerned, but they are heavily influenced, in terms of issues like size and time off by the provisions of the Labour Code.

In the case of a works council, the Labour Code also requires that must have its own rules (statutes), which include how it functions (Article 434). These must be approved in a vote of the whole workforce (Article 430) and registered with the ministry of labour (Article 438), which checks their legality (Article 439).

The Labour Code does not lay down how frequently the works council should meet, but it must meet management at least once a month (Article 423).

Election and term of office

Trade union delegates are elected in a secret ballot by the trade union members at their workplace. The detailed rules of the election are laid down by the unions, although the employer should be given the names of the successful candidates, and the term of office cannot be more than four years.

Works council members are elected by the entire workforce and must themselves be employees. (In practice they are frequently also trade union delegates). The Labour Code makes clear that all workers “regardless of age or function”, have the right to take part in the elections both as candidates and as voters (Article 415). Nominations must be supported by at least 100 employees or 20% of the workforce, and voting is on the basis of a list system. Unions have no special nominating rights in these elections.

Elections must take place at least every four years, although the precise period is fixed in the rules of each works council, which should be voted on by the entire workforce. There is no limit on the number of times that works council members can be re-elected.

Tasks and rights

A key part of the role of the trade union delegates is to provide a link between union members and the union, through recruitment and campaigning activity.

In the area of collective bargaining, trade union delegates ensure that existing collective agreements are properly applied; and, in the minority of companies where there is a company-level agreement, may be involved in collective bargaining. In most cases any agreement reached will need to be ratified formally by the union, although in companies with more than 150 employees (previously 500) trade union delegates, like works councils in companies of the same size, can now sign their own collective agreements (see Who negotiates?).

Trade union delegates are entitled to information on “recent and probable development of the employer’s activities and economic situation” and information and consultation on “the situation, structure and probable development of employment”, as well as measures planned to maintain staffing levels, together with “measures likely to lead to substantial changes in work organisation”. This wording is in line with the EU framework directive on information and consultation (2002/14/EC). This information is to be requested in writing by the trade union delegates and by law it must be provided within eight to 15 days depending on its complexity. They must also specifically be informed about the use of temporary contracts and any reduction in work breaks.

In addition, if there is no works council, the trade union delegates should be informed and consulted on working hours, hours for interns, holiday arrangements, redundancy proposals, dismissals linked to capability, works rules and temporary close downs. It must also be informed of individual dismissals, if there is no works council, and can express its point of view.

The trade union committee or the joint trade union committee has the right to call all employees to a meeting in works time, subject to giving 48 hours’ notice and without prejudicing essential operations (Labour Code Article 461). The total time of such meetings may not exceed 15 hours a year. Changes introduced in 2023 make it clear that this right, to hold a meeting of employees in works time, also extends to unions which have no members in the company (Article 460).

The role of the works council is largely advisory and consultative. It does not have the decision-making or veto powers which exist elsewhere in Europe.

As set out in the Labour Code (Articles 423 to 429), the works council’s general rights at the workplace are to:

• receive the information necessary to carry out its activities;
• exercise some control over the company's management;
• participate, with others, in company restructuring, in the preparation of occupational training plans and reports and in procedures related to changes in working conditions; and
• manage or participate in the management of the company's social provision (such as canteens).

The information it must receive covers:

• general activity and budget plans;
• the organisation of production and its likely impact on levels of employment and equipment utilisation;
• the supply position;
• forecasts and levels of sales;
• personnel management (including specifically workers on temporary contracts) and the establishment of basic criteria such as the overall wage bill and its distribution by occupational group, social benefits, productivity and absenteeism;
• the financial situation, including the balance sheet and profit and loss account;
• financing methods;
• tax and other similar charges; and
• any plans to change the purposes, share capital or activities of the company.

This information is to be requested in writing by the works council, and it must be provided within eight to 15 days depending on its complexity.

The employer is required to consult with the works council as soon as possible on:

• changes in the criteria used for occupational classification and employee promotion;
• relocation of the company or workplaces within it;
• anything that could produce a significant reduction in the number of employees, a major worsening of working conditions; or changes in work organisation; and
• the dissolution or insolvency of the company.

This consultation should be in writing, and the works should respond to the company’s request within 10 days or within a longer period if the issue is complex.

The purpose of the limited control over management, set out in the Labour Code (Article 426), is to promote “the responsible commitment of workers to the company's activity”. The works council is able to:

• assess and issue its opinion of the company's budget and its changes, as well as to monitor how it is implemented;
• promote the appropriate use of technical, human and financial resources;
• promote measures that contribute to the improvement of the company's activity, particularly in relation to the use of equipment and administrative simplification;
• make suggestions and proposals to the company on initial qualifications and further training as well as on the improvement of working conditions, particularly health and safety at work; and
• defend the legitimate interests of workers with the management and supervisory bodies of the company and the competent authorities.

In the specific area of restructuring the works council has a right (Article 429) to:

• advance information and consultation on initial restructuring plans or proposals;
• information on the final form of the restructuring planned and the opportunity to present its views before the plans are approved;
• meet those in charge of preparatory restructuring work; and
• make suggestions, complaints or criticisms to the company’s management bodies.

The works council should also be consulted about changes in working hours, the hours for interns (student workers), holiday arrangements, redundancy proposals, works rules, and temporary work closures. It is also involved in individual dismissals, where it can express its point of view. It must be asked for its opinion on any use of biometric data or remote surveillance and informed of any reduction in work breaks. It must also be consulted about health and safety issues if there are no separate health and safety representatives.

Sub-works councils have broadly similar rights, although at the level of an individual workplace rather than the whole company.

In practice, works councils often find it difficult to ensure that they are given all the information they should receive or are consulted sufficiently.

The works council also has the right to call meetings of all employees under similar terms to those for the trade union. As with the meetings called by the union delegates, employees have a right to 15 hours a year for meetings called by the works council. These meetings can also be held electronically (Article 419).

In most cases, the works council will not be involved in collective bargaining, where the unions normally have the sole right to represent the employees. However, changes to the labour code in 2009 permitted the works council to negotiate with the employer where the company employs at least 500 people, provided this has been expressly permitted by the union and in 2012 the threshold was lowered to 150 (see Who negotiates?).

The situation described above relates to companies in both the public and private sectors. The situation is similar in public administration, following legislation introduced in 2009.61

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Protection against dismissal

Employees participating in the structures of collective employee representation (defined in Article 404 of the Labour Code as including trade unions, works councils (workers’ commissions), health and safety representatives and other bodies determined by law (such as European works councils) are protected in the exercise of their functions. Article 406 of the Labour Code prohibits any act intended to “dismiss, transfer or, in any way, harm a worker due to the exercise of the rights related to participation in structures of collective representation”. The same article also prohibits discrimination because of trade union membership.

Works council members and union delegates can be dismissed like other workers for misconduct, poor performance or because their job no longer exists (redundancy), but they have additional protections set out in Article 410 of the Labour Code, although Article 463 sets limits on the number of union delegates who are protected (see Numbers and composition).

The dismissal of an employee who is part of the governing structures of a trade union is assumed to be unfair, placing the burden of proof on the employer. In addition, employees who are part of the collective representative structure will normally have their dismissal suspended unless a court has found that that there is a “serious probability” that employer will be found to have had a good reason for dismissing the individual. The court is also required to decide with the issue rapidly.

Where the court finds that a union delegate or works council member (a member of the collective representative structure) has been unfairly dismissed they can choose between reinstatement or compensation. This is set by the court at a rate of between 30 and 60 days per year or part year of service (basic pay plus a supplement linked to length of service) and cannot be less than six months’ pay.

Article 410 also provides that where a union delegate or works council member is facing dismissal for their actions and has been suspended (a stage in the disciplinary process) they can continue to exercise their representative functions as before, and they continue to have access to the premises. This continues while waiting for a decision by the court.

Employee representatives are also protected against transfer from their current workplace, as they may only be transferred if they agree, unless the area where they work has been totally or partially closed or moved. The body to which they belong, union or works council, must also be informed of the proposed transfer (Article 411).

Protection is not just provided to those currently holding representative positions. The provision that the dismissal of an employee who is part of the governing structures of a trade union is assumed to be unfair, also applies to those who are candidates to be members of the union structures and those held these positions within the previous three years (Article 410).

Time off and other resources

Trade union delegates are entitled to five hours a month paid time off – eight if they are in a joint committee with several unions

In addition, under Article 468 of the Labour Code, members of the executive of a union body, from local unions to national confederations, are entitled to four days paid time off per month, with the number increasing in line with the number of union members in the company (see Table 3).

Table 3: Time off for members of a union executive body

Number of union members	Number of union executives with right to four days’ time off per month
Fewer than 50	1
50-99	2
100-199	3
200-499	4
500-999	6
1,000-1,999	7
2,000-4,999	8
5,000 -9,999	10
10,000+	12

These amounts can be combined and used by a smaller number of executives, provided the overall total is not exceeded. This allows senior union executives to work full time for their union but continue to be paid by their employer

Trade union delegates in companies or workplaces with more than 150 employees are entitled to the use of a permanent office within the company “appropriate to the exercise of their functions” (Article 464). In smaller companies or workplaces, they are entitled to use an office/meeting room as required. The also have the right to use of a noticeboard for union information and to distribute information from the union. Since 2021 this has been extended to electronic methods of communication, with the union having the right to post notices on the company’s intranet and to email union notices to those working away from the company’s premises – teleworking (Article 465).

Trade unions also have these rights – to use a meeting room and distribute material to members – even if they have no members in the company (Article 460, as revised in 2023).

Works council members are entitled to 25 hours paid time-off a month, but only half this in micro companies (fewer than 10 employees) (Article 422). In companies with more than 1,000 employees, the members of the works council can agree that the total amount of time off, worked out on the basis of each member having 25 hours a month, can be divided as they wish. However, in these circumstances no single member of the works council can have more than 40 hours a month, other than in publicly owned companies of this size, where one works council can be freed from normal duties for half their total hours.

Time-off rights cannot be accumulated between the three different types of employee representation: union structures in the workplace, works councils and representatives for health and safety. For example, a works council member who is also a trade union delegate cannot add together the time off for the two functions. In all three cases, the employer should be informed at least two days in advance of the intention to take time off, except where there are unexpected reasons for doing so.

Works councils are entitled to the use of "adequate" premises as well as the material and technical support necessary for them to carry out their work.

Training rights

There are no training rights for employee representatives. Neither union delegates nor members of the workers commissions have a legal right to paid time off for training.

However, unions have the right to participate in training linked to company restructuring.

Group representation

The Labour Code provides for coordinating councils of workers, who bring together works councils from different companies with the aim of creating links between them and having a positive role in economic restructuring. They may not have more members than the number of works councils they are coordinating, up to a maximum of 11 (Article 417), and the members are entitled to 20 hours off a month (Article 422). However, figures on the number of members of coordinating councils elected each year show that they are very rare. There were no members elected in 2020, and only 11 in 2019.62

It is also possible for a works council in a company with several workplaces to set up sub-works councils, which send representatives to the company works council (see Numbers and composition).

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There are constitutional provisions giving Portuguese employees the right to elect representatives on the governing bodies of state-owned companies and other public bodies. However, in practice only this only occurs in a handful of companies. There is no employee board level representation in private companies.63

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The extent of board-level employee representation

The Portuguese Constitution, introduced in 1976, states in Article 54 that works councils (comissões de trabalhadores – CTs) “have the right … to promote the election of workers' representatives to the governing bodies of enterprises that belong to the state or other public entities, as laid down by law”.

However, legislation, passed in the same year and amended in 1984, which gave employees the right to elect one member of the board of directors in state-owned companies, was repealed in 1999.64 The justification for the repeal at the time was in part that the number of state-owned companies had been greatly reduced and subsequent privatisations had further cut the number of companies owned by the state.

In consequence, although the Labour Code similarly states that the works council of a “public corporate entity promotes the election of workers' representatives to the governing bodies” of that entity, it goes on to state that the number of employees to be elected, as well as the body on which they sit, are to be determined by the company’s own statutes (Article 428).

These is no complete list of public sector companies, whose statutes provide for board-level employee representation, but the available information suggests there are very few.

The two best known cases, are both in air transport, TAP, the Portuguese flag carrier, which was renationalised in 2020, and SATA, which is based in the Azores. Both were covered in the Portuguese chapter of the 2025 ETUI publication, Revisiting worker representation on boards.65

TAP has one employee representative as a non-executive director on its 10-strong management board.66 SATA has one employee representative on the four-person management board of its regional airways’ operation, SATA Air Açores.67

In the case of TAP, the appointment of a non-executive director representing employees goes back to May 2021, when it was unexpectedly proposed by the ministry for infrastructure. An election was held among employees in June that year and the individual elected was appointed by the state.68

In the case of SATA, board-level employee representation at SATA Air Açores was first introduced in 1989 but was lost in December 2000, when the government of the Azores failed to appoint the individual elected. It was only recovered in a court case in January 2006, which found that legislation (Decreto-Lei nº 276/2000), which had removed the right of the employees to have a representative on the board, had been unconstitutional.69

Other than these two examples, there appear to be only a small number of state-owned companies, most in the health sector, plus the state-owned railway company and the Lisbon metro, with employee representatives on company bodies. In every case, they are limited to a single individual on a consultative board “conselho consultivo”, whose duties are advisory.70

A study on board-level employee representation in Portugal found that the end of 2019, there were 41 hospitals and other local heath units which had the form of a public corporate entity “entidade pública empresarial” and therefore were covered by legislation (Decreto-Lei n.º 18/2017), which provides in Article 21 for one employee representative in a consultative board of seven or eight members.71

At Comboios de Portugal (the railways) the consultative board was established by in 2009, and the employee representative is one of six normal members of the consultative board, with the possibility of further co-options.72 At Metropolitano de Lisboa (Lisbon metro), where the consultative board was established in the same year

one of 10 members of the consultative board is elected by the employees.73

In the private sector, there is no effective legislation giving employees the right to be represented at board level. Legislation permits employee representation to be agreed between employers and unions, but in practice this does not happen.

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Nomination and election of employee representatives

At both TAP and SATA Air Açores, the employee representatives are elected by the workforce before being appointed by the state. However, there are differences between the two in terms of who can stand. While at SATA Air Açores the individual must be an employee of the company, this is not the case at TAP. The current employee representative, who is an employee, defeated an external candidate, an economist, who was backed by one of TAP’s unions in the elections in 2021.74

At the health institutions, the railways and the Lisbon metro, where employee representatives sit on the consultative board, the method for selecting them is not specified in the legislation.

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The rights of employee representatives

The representatives on the management boards of TAP and SATA Air Açores have the same rights and duties as the other non-executive directors. Their period of office, as set out in the statutes of the two companies is also the same, four years. In the case of TAP and three in the case of SATA Air Açores, although in both cases they can be renewed.75

At the health institutions, the railways and the Lisbon metro, employee members of the consultative board have the same rights as other members. Although these are limited, they include review the business’s annual and multi-annual plans and making recommendations for improvements.

They also have the same three-year period of office, although, in the case of Metropolitano de Lisboa, this mandate can only be renewed up to three times.

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All Portuguese members of bodies concerned with European Works Councils or European Companies are chosen in a similar way – appointed by agreement with the works council and the unions, by the works council if there are no unions and by the unions if there is no works council, provided they represent sufficient employees. There is also a fall-back of direct elections.

European Works Councils

Provisions for the appointment of Portuguese members of the special negotiating body (SNB) of an EWC are set out in Lei n.º 96/2009 (Article 26).76

They are appointed by agreement between the works council (comissão de trabalhadores – CT) and the unions, provided the unions represent at least 5% of the employees. If there are no unions, the works council (or works councils if there are several companies involved) chooses the Portuguese members.

If there is no works council, the members of the SNB are chosen by the unions that together represent more than half of the unionised workforce of the company (or companies) concerned, although the unions participating must represent at least 5% of the employees involved. The only exception to the 5% rule is that unions representing fewer than 5% of the employees can together choose one of their number to participate in choosing the Portuguese members of the SNB.

If none of these conditions apply, or if a third of the employees require it, the members of the SNB are elected by the employees as a whole. Candidates must be nominated by at least 100 employees or 10% of the workforce. The law does not state whether Portuguese members of the SNB have to be employees.

The procedure is the same for members of an EWC set up under the fall-back procedures in the annex to the directive (Article 9).

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European Company

The involvement of Portugues employees in a European Company is set out in Decreto-Lei n.º 215/2005.77

It provides in Article 39 that Portuguese members of the special negotiating body of a European Company are appointed by agreement between the works council and the unions, provided the unions represent at least 5% of the employees. If there are no unions, the works council chooses the Portuguese members. The unions can choose the members, provided that in total they represent at least two-thirds of the employees, or, where this not the case, provided that each union involved represents at least 5% of the employees involved. Unions representing less than 5% of the employees can together choose one of their number to participate in choosing the Portuguese members of the SNB.

If none of these conditions apply, or if a third of the employees require it, the members of the SNB are elected by the employees as a whole. Candidates must be nominated by at least 100 employees or 10% of the workforce. The law specifically states that a union representative who is not an employee can be one of the Portuguese members of the SNB (Article 38).

The procedure is the same for Portuguese members of the SE representative body, set up under the fallback arrangements in the annex to the directive, although here there is no provision for non-employees to be members (Article 40).

The same rules apply to employee representatives from Portugal taking seats on the board of a company under the fallback provisions in the annex (Article 42).

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The health and safety representation of employees in Portugal can be provided by specially elected health and safety representatives. They should meet the employer at least once a month and have the right to be consulted in writing on a range of issues at least once a year. Joint employer/employee health and safety committees can be set up where there is a collective agreement to that effect.

Employee health and safety bodies

Employees in Portugal have a legal right to elect employee representatives for safety and health at work (representantes dos trabalhadores para a segurança e a saúde no trabalho). It is also possible to set up joint employer/employee safety and health committees (comissões de segurança e saúde no trabalho), where a collective agreement provides for this.

Numbers and structure

There is no minimum threshold for the election of health and safety representatives. In other words, they can be elected at all workplaces. However, as the number of employees increases, the legislation provides for a larger number of health and safety representatives up to a maximum of seven (see Table 1).

Table 1: Number of health and safety representatives

Number of employees	Number of health and safety representatives
Up to 60	1
61 to 150	2
151 to 300	3
301 to 500	4
501 to 1,000	5
1,001 to 1,500	6
More than 1,500	7

In addition, collective agreements can provide for a larger number of health and safety representatives.

The legislation also allows for the creation of joint health and safety committees, with an equal number of employee and employer representatives, but a collective agreement is needed to set them up. The employee members are the elected health and safety representatives

Research by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work in 2019 found that 24% of workplaces in Portugal had health and safety representatives. This well below the EU27 average, which is 56%. The proportion of workplaces in Portugal with a health and safety committee, at 13% is also below the EU-27 average of 22%. (The figures are for workplaces with five or more employees.)78

Figures from a later survey, Eurofound’s European Working Conditions Survey 2024. which looked at employees rather than workplaces, show that that 32% of employees in Portugal report having an occupational health and safety delegate at their workplace. This percentage is well below the EU average of 60%, with only Greece and Bulgaria having lower numbers.79

There are no comparable national statistics, but figures from the ministry of labour for 2020 show that just 118 individuals were elected as health and safety representatives during the year, a low number, given that Portugal has almost 340,000 workplaces.80

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Tasks and rights

At least once a year, health and safety representatives should be consulted in writing on the following issues:

• risk assessments, including for those facing special risks;
• the implementation of health and safety measures – if possible before implementation;
• technological changes which have a health and safety impact;
• health and safety training;
• the appointment of employees with particular health and safety functions;
• the appointment of those responsible for first aid, fire fight and evacuation;
• the use of external health and safety services; protective equipment; and
• a list of fatal and serious accidents (causing at least three days’ absence), together with any reports on them.

In providing this information, the employer should give the health and safety representatives access to the appropriate technical and medical reports (which should not identify individuals) as well as any external reports. The health and safety representatives should respond to the material within a period of 15 days, which may be extended if the material is complex. The initial consultation material and the responses to it should be recorded in a register held by the company.

Health and safety representatives also have the right to make their own proposals to reduce occupational risks.

Health and safety representative should also be specifically informed about temporary workers and consulted about the health effects of night working.

Unions also have a direct role in health safety issues through their ability to reach collective agreements on the topic. This is widely used. In its report on collective bargaining in 2025, the Centre for Labour Relations, a tripartite body supported by the ministry of labour, found that 76 of the 277 collective agreements published in that year (all agreements must be registered and published) included clauses on health and safety issues. This is 27.4% of the total, although, because a high proportion of these settlements were company-level agreements, the proportion terms of employees covered by collective agreements including health and safety clauses was lower at 16.6%.81

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Frequency of meetings

Health and safety representatives have the right to meet management at least once a month to discuss issues related to health and safety.

Election and term of office

Safety representatives are elected by all employees with nominations coming from unions or at least 20 % of the workforce. The legislation contains very detailed provisions covering the election procedure.

The term of office is three years.

Resources, time off and training

Health and safety representatives have a right to five hours’ time off a month, which does not include the time spent in meetings.

Health and safety representatives should have the material and technical resources necessary to carry out their duties, as well as the right to distribute information about health and safety issues and to display material in an appropriate room.

They also have a right to training in order to carry out their functions. In some cases, this training may be supported by the public authorities.

Protection against dismissal

Health and safety representatives should not be dismissed or suffer other disadvantages as a result of their duties and the Labour Code provides for specific protection against dismissal or transfer (see Protection against dismissal).

Other elements of workplace health and safety

All but the smallest employers are required to set up a health and safety service, which in most cases can be internal, external or a common service shared by a number of employers. However, larger organisations – those with 400 or more employees – and organisations, where at least 30 employees are exposed to higher levels of risk, must set up an internal health and safety service, using their own employees. (Activities considered to involve higher levels of risk include construction, mining and quarrying, steelmaking and working with dangerous chemicals.)

Employers can ask the authorities for exemption from the requirement to have an internal health and safety service if the operations do not involve high risks and they can demonstrate accident rates and rates of occupational illness that are below the average for the sector in which they work.

External health and safety services must be authorised by the Authority for Working Conditions (see National context), and where an employer uses an external or a communal health and safety service, he or she must designate an employee with appropriate training, to help with the monitoring and implementation of the organisation’s health and safety work.

In organisations which do not employ more than nine employees and are not high risk, the employer can ask for authorisation to undertake health and safety work in the company, provided he or she has the appropriate training. Alternatively, the employer can designate an employee to do this work.

National context

The ministry responsible for health and safety at work is the Ministry of Labour, Solidarity and Social Security (Ministro do Trabalho, Solidariedade e Segurança Social – MTSSS). The body responsible for ensuring compliance with health and safety law in Portugal is the Authority for Working Conditions (Autoridade para as Condições do Trabalho – ACT) which also monitors compliance with labour law more generally.

Trade unions and employers are able to influence health and safety policy at national level through their membership of Consultative Council for the Promotion of Health and Safety at Work (Conselho Consultivo para a Promoção da Segurança e Saúde no Trabalho). This is the consultative body for the Authority for Working Conditions. Unions and employers are also member of two tripartite bodies with a wider remit, the Economic and Social Council (Conselho Económico e Social – CES) and the Permanent Commission for Social Dialogue (Comissão Permanente de Concertação Social – CPCS) (see Joint employer union body at national level).82

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Key legislation

Law No. 102/2009 the legal arrangements for the promotion of occupational safety and health 10 September 2009 (and subsequent amendments)

Labour code 2009 (and subsequent amendments)

Lei n.º 102/2009 de 10 de Setembro: Regime jurídico da promoção da segurança e saúde no trabalho

Código do trabalho 2009