Domestic worker rights in Portugal: what the law says

Do you work in someone's home in Portugal, cleaning, cooking, or caring for children or elderly people? Or do you employ someone who does? Then the normal Labour Code does not apply directly: domestic service follows its own law, Decree-Law 235/92, revised in 2023 by Law 13/2023. The short answer: domestic workers get the minimum wage, Christmas and holiday bonuses, a 40 hour week and mandatory accident insurance, but the rules for ending the contract are unlike any other job.

What counts as domestic work

Fatima cleans, irons and cooks lunch three mornings a week for a family in Braga. That is domestic service. The neighbour who pays her for a single day helping with a house move is not: the regularity is missing.

A domestic service contract exists when someone works on a regular basis, under the direction of a household, to meet that household's needs (Article 2(1) of Decree-Law 235/92). The law gives examples: cooking, washing and ironing, cleaning and tidying, watching over and caring for children, elderly or sick people, looking after pets, gardening, sewing, supervising other workers doing these tasks and running related errands.

Excluded (Article 2(3)): occasional jobs, one-off tasks done intermittently, au pair arrangements, self-employed work and social volunteering. One detail almost nobody knows: the regime also applies, with adaptations, to people doing these activities for non-profit organisations (Article 2(2)).

Contract: written or verbal?

A verbal agreement is a valid contract (Article 3). Thousands of domestic work relationships in Portugal run this way, legally. But there is one exception with teeth: a fixed term contract is only valid in writing.

The fixed term rules (Articles 5 and 6):

• A term, fixed or unfixed, is allowed when the work is transitory or temporary, for example caring for someone during recovery from surgery.
• The parties may also agree a fixed term without a transitory reason, but then the total duration, renewals included, cannot exceed 1 year (Article 5(2)).
• Without writing, the term clause is null: the contract counts as permanent (Article 5(4)).
• A fixed term contract can be renewed twice (Article 6(1)).
• If the worker stays on 15 days after the contract was due to end, it converts into a permanent contract (Article 6(2)).

The probation period now follows the general Labour Code rules, because the special numbers in Decree-Law 235/92 were revoked in 2023: see the probation period guide. One special rule survived: if the contract ends during probation and the worker lives in, she gets at least 24 hours to leave the lodging (Article 8(3)).

Pay: minimum wage, payment in kind and bonuses

Maria is a live-in carer for an elderly couple in Porto. She receives 650 euros in cash plus room and board. Is that legal? Yes: part of the pay can be in kind, through lodging and meals (Article 9(2)). But the total value can never fall below the minimum wage: 920 euros in 2026, and for calculating compensation everything is converted into money (Article 10(3)).

Three practical rules about pay:

• Daily value: divide the pay by 30, 15 or 7, depending on whether it is set per month, fortnight or week (Article 11). Maria, on 920 euros per month, is worth 30.67 euros per day.
• Meals on days off: if on the weekly rest day or a public holiday the employer neither provides a meal to a live-in worker nor lets her cook with the household's food, he must pay the cash value of those meals on top of her wages (Article 9(3)).
• Underpaying breaches Article 9(1), a very serious administrative offence (Article 36(1)).

What about bonuses? Since Law 13/2023, the special articles on the Christmas bonus and the holiday bonus were revoked. The general Labour Code rules apply (Article 37-A): both bonuses, in full, like any other worker.

Working time, rest and public holidays

The limit is 40 hours per week (Article 13(1)). For live-in workers only effective working time counts (13(2)): being available in the house is not the same as working.

Rest has its own rules:

• Night rest of 11 consecutive hours for live-in workers, which may only be interrupted for serious, unforeseen or force majeure reasons, or when the worker was hired to care for sick people or children under three (Article 14(2)).
• One weekly rest day, which should fall on Sunday; it can move to another day only for serious, non-regular reasons in the household's life (Article 15).
• Public holidays are the same as for every worker (Article 24(1)). Working on a holiday requires the worker's agreement and earns paid compensatory rest in the same or the following week, or the corresponding pay if rest is not feasible (Article 24(2) and (3)).

Breaching the rules on working time, meal breaks, weekly rest or holidays is a serious administrative offence (Article 36(2)).

Holidays and absences: general rules

Here the special law deliberately shrank. The articles of Decree-Law 235/92 on annual leave and absences were revoked by Law 13/2023, so the Labour Code applies (Article 37-A): 22 working days of holidays per year and the general rules on justified and unjustified absences.

One special rule survived to protect workers paid partly in kind: during holidays, a worker with lodging and meals receives everything in cash, including the value of those benefits calculated by reference to the minimum wage, unless both sides agree to keep them in kind (Article 17(2) and (3)).

Accident insurance and safety at home

A home is also a workplace: stairs, irons, cleaning chemicals. The employer must make sure equipment and products pose no risk to the worker's health, label containers holding toxic products and provide protective gear when needed (Article 26(1)).

The obligation with the biggest practical consequences: transferring work accident liability to an insurance company (Article 26(3)). Without insurance the employer pays for any accident out of his own pocket and commits a serious administrative offence (Article 36(2)). If something goes wrong, see the work accident guide.

Social Security: registration is mandatory

Whoever employs a domestic worker must register her with Social Security and pay contributions, even for a few hours per week across several households. Contributions can be calculated on the real wage or on conventional amounts set by reference to the IAS social support index, depending on the situation. The current rates and amounts are in the domestic service practical guide at seg-social.pt. Without contributions there is no sick pay, no unemployment benefit and no pension. New to the Portuguese system? Start with starting work in Portugal.

Ending the contract: genuinely different rules

This is where the special regime moves furthest from the Labour Code. A domestic service contract can only end in four ways (Article 27): mutual agreement, lapse, termination with just cause by either side, or the worker resigning with notice. [Common interpretation: since termination is fully regulated by Articles 27 to 33, the Labour Code dismissal procedures do not apply here. There is no formal disciplinary procedure with a written charge as in a normal dismissal.]

Lapse: when the household changes

Luisa has worked 9 years for the same family, earning 950 euros per month. The family emigrates. The contract lapses due to a substantial change in family life (Article 28(1)(d)) and Luisa is entitled to 30 days of notice (contract over two years: Article 28(5)) plus compensation of 1 month for every 3 years: 3 months at 950 euros = 2,850 euros, on top of full pay for the month in which the contract lapses (Article 28(3)). The law adds a cap: "up to a limit of five". [Common interpretation: five months of pay, reached at 15 years of service.]

The notice periods for lapse (Article 28(5)): 7 days for contracts up to six months, 15 days between six months and two years, 30 days beyond two years. A live-in worker whose fixed term contract lapses gets 3 days to leave the lodging (28(4)).

Just cause: always in writing

Either side can end the contract immediately with just cause (Article 29). The employer's list (Article 30) includes illegitimate disobedience, serious damage to the household's property, 5 consecutive or 10 non-consecutive unjustified absences in a year, violence or insults, breaching confidentiality about the family's life and repeated negligence with appliances and household items causing serious damage.

The golden rule is Article 29(3): whoever terminates must state in writing, expressly and unequivocally, the facts behind the just cause. An employer who dismisses without that written statement commits a serious offence (Article 36(2)), and in court the lack of concrete facts tends to be expensive.

If a court finds the dismissal unfounded and there is no agreement to reinstate, the maths is direct (Article 31): Rosa, with 6 years of service at 920 euros per month, receives 6 x 920 = 5,520 euros; with intent by the employer, up to 11,040 euros. In fixed term contracts, the compensation is the pay remaining until the end of the term.

On the worker's side (Article 32), just cause includes late or missing wages, offences against her honour, conditions that harm her health, abusive sanctions, breaching confidentiality about her personal life, harassment, and the employer permanently moving home to another town. In most of these situations the worker gets 1 month per year or fraction (Article 32(2)). Note one catch: the employer moving home gives just cause to leave but no compensation, because point (f) is left out of the list in paragraph 2.

Resigning: notice counted in weeks, not months

To leave, the worker gives notice of 2 weeks per year of service or fraction, capped at 6 weeks (Article 33(1)). Ana, with 3 and a half years of service, counts 4 years (the fraction counts): that would be 8 weeks, but the cap is 6. A worker who skips the notice owes the employer the pay for the missing period, which can be offset against final credits (Article 33(2) and (3)).

Do you employ someone in your home in Portugal? Four points to sleep well. First: register the worker with Social Security and pay contributions from day one. Second: take out work accident insurance; without it you are personally liable for any accident and commit a serious offence (Articles 26 and 36). Third: if you want a fixed term, put it in writing, otherwise the clause is null (Article 5(4)). Fourth: any termination by lapse or just cause requires a written statement of reasons and the correct notice (Articles 28 and 29); formal mistakes are what lose cases in court. The rest of your routine duties are in the employer obligations checklist and the hiring guide.

This guide is general information and does not replace legal advice for your specific case. Questions? ola@despacho.pt