Disciplinary Procedure Portugal: Step by Step for Employers

A worker crossed the line: disrespect, no-shows, or a serious breach. You want to react. But if you run the disciplinary procedure badly, a justified dismissal turns into an unfair one that costs you thousands of euros.

This guide gives you the right path, step by step: the deadlines, the documents, and the mistakes that void everything.

Before you start: are you still in time?

Two questions decide whether you can even begin. Fail one and the process is dead on arrival.

1. Are you within the 60 days? The procedure must start within 60 days of the day the employer, or the manager with disciplinary power, learned about the infraction (Art. 329 no. 2 CT).

2. Is the infraction less than 1 year old? The right to punish expires 1 year after the offence was committed (Art. 329 no. 1). If the act is also a crime, the criminal-law deadline applies, usually longer.

Choose the route: light sanction or dismissal

Not every offence justifies dismissal. The law gives you a scale of sanctions, from the lightest to the heaviest (Art. 328 no. 1 CT):

1. Reprimand, a verbal warning.
2. Recorded reprimand, in writing, kept in the file.
3. Financial penalty, a deduction from pay.
4. Loss of holiday days.
5. Suspension from work with loss of pay and seniority.
6. Dismissal with no compensation.

The golden rule is proportionality: the sanction must fit the seriousness of the offence and the worker's fault. And you cannot apply more than one sanction for the same infraction (Art. 330). Reprimanding and then suspending for the same fact is illegal.

The sanctions have quantity limits (Art. 328 no. 3):

Watch a point many people skip: even for a light sanction, you must hear the worker before you decide (prior hearing, Art. 329 no. 6). You do not need a formal nota de culpa for a reprimand, but you do need to let them explain. For dismissal, the nota de culpa is mandatory, as we see next.

The dismissal procedure, step by step

When the offence is serious enough to dismiss (Art. 351 CT), the full procedure kicks in. Each phase has a deadline. Miss one and the dismissal is void.

The nota de culpa: the document that decides everything

The nota de culpa (the formal charge letter) is the single most important piece. It sits in Art. 353 and must do three things:

1. Describe the facts in detail, with dates, places, specific conduct. "Inappropriate attitude" or "lack of professionalism" is not enough.
2. State which rule was breached, which duty, contract clause or internal regulation.
3. Declare the intention to dismiss, in writing, expressly.

There is a principle here that catches many companies: in the final decision you can only use the facts that were in the nota de culpa (Art. 357). If during instruction you discover a new offence, you cannot use it to dismiss without issuing a new nota de culpa.

Preventive suspension: allowed, but paid

While the process runs, you can remove the worker from the post through preventive suspension (Art. 354). It makes sense when their presence could disturb the investigation or trigger conflict.

The critical rule: the salary keeps being paid in full. Suspension is not punishment. Cutting the salary during suspension turns it into unpaid wages and hands the worker a reason to resign with just cause against you.

For the detail of suspension and its limits, see the guide Preventive suspension in the disciplinary process.

The 6 errors that make a dismissal unfair

Almost every dismissal that falls in court falls on form, not on the merits. These are the most expensive mistakes:

1. Skipping the nota de culpa. Dismissing by direct letter, with no process, is automatic nullity (Art. 382). There is no shortcut.

2. A vague nota de culpa. Without dates and concrete facts, the worker asks for nullity and wins. Write it as if a judge will read it.

3. Passing the 60 days. The right to open the process expires (Art. 329 no. 2). Mark the deadline the day you learn about the infraction.

4. Deciding too early. You cannot decide before the 10 working days of reply end, nor before the workers committee opinion. An early decision is void.

5. Suspending without paying. Preventive suspension keeps the salary (Art. 354). Cutting pay is illegal.

6. Inventing new facts in the decision. The decision can only use what was in the nota de culpa and the reply (Art. 357). A new fact requires a new nota de culpa.

What a botched procedure costs

If the court rules the dismissal unfair (Art. 382), the company pays (Art. 389 to 391):

• Intervening wages, every salary from the dismissal to the judgment. That can be 8 to 24 months of pay.
• Reinstatement of the worker in the post, with seniority, or compensation of 15 to 45 days of base pay per year of service, at the worker's choice.
• Possible non-financial damages, if there was humiliation or harassment.

And there is still the administrative offence: breaching the procedure is a serious infraction (very serious if the worker is a union representative), with a fine from the ACT.

In other words: a clean process costs time and care. A botched process costs one to two years of salary. Before you move, put the numbers on the table.

Abusive sanction: the line you cannot cross

There is one case where the sanction is always illegal, even with a perfect procedure: the abusive sanction (Art. 331). It is the sanction applied to retaliate against a worker who exercised their rights.

The law presumes the dismissal or sanction abusive when it happens within 6 months after the worker, for example, complained about working conditions, refused an unlawful order, or held workers representation duties. It rises to 1 year when the complaint relates to equality and non-discrimination.

Checklist before you sign the decision

Run this list before you dismiss. If one answer is "no", stop.

1. Am I within 60 days of learning about the infraction?
2. Does the nota de culpa describe concrete facts, with dates?
3. Did I declare the intention to dismiss in writing?
4. Did I give the 10 working days of reply before deciding?
5. Did I send a copy of the file to the workers committee and wait for the opinion?
6. Does the decision use only facts that were in the nota de culpa?
7. Is the decision written and reasoned?
8. Does this not look like retaliation for a right the worker exercised?

Tools and related guides

• Severance calculator, the cost of an unfair dismissal.
• Preventive suspension in the disciplinary process, when and how to suspend without cutting pay.
• Termination of the employment contract, the full picture of every way to end a contract.
• Can my employer fire me? (the worker's side), see the process through the eyes of the person who will challenge it.
• I received a disciplinary notice, what now? (the worker's side), what your worker will do next.

Disclaimer

This guide explains the general rules of the disciplinary procedure set out in the Portuguese Labour Code in force on 2026-06-28. Every case has its own detail: collective agreements, internal regulations, specific facts. For high-risk dismissals, consider legal advice before you decide.