Part-time work in Portugal: rights, pay and allowances

Do you work fewer hours than your colleagues and suspect you are losing rights? The rule is simple: your pay is proportional, most of the rest is not. The regime sits in Articles 150 to 156 of the Portuguese Labour Code and it protects you more than most people expect.

What actually counts as part-time

Article 150(1) defines part-time work as work corresponding to a normal weekly working period shorter than the full-time period worked in a comparable situation. There is no magic percentage in the law. There is no minimum number of hours. There is only the comparison.

Three rules decide that comparison:

• If the schedule is not the same every week, the average over the applicable reference period is used (Article 150(2)).
• Work may be performed on only some days of the week, month or year, and the number of days must be set by agreement (Article 150(3)).
• Who counts as comparable: someone doing identical work in the same establishment; failing that, in another establishment of the same company with identical activity, taking seniority and qualifications into account (Article 150(4)). If nobody comparable exists, you look at what the law or the collective agreement provides for a full-time worker with the same seniority and qualifications (Article 150(5)).

Two provisions block abuse. The freedom to agree a part-time contract cannot be excluded by a collective agreement (Article 151). And collective agreements must set hiring preferences for part-time posts in favour of people with family responsibilities, with reduced working capacity, with a disability or chronic illness, or attending an educational institution. Ignoring that preference is a serious administrative offence (Article 152).

With no written contract, yours is a full-time contract

This is the most valuable rule in the chapter and almost nobody knows it.

Article 153(1) requires the part-time contract to be in writing and to contain:

• the identification, signatures and address or registered office of the parties;
• the normal daily and weekly working period, stated by comparison with full-time work.

Then come the two consequences:

• Is the working period missing? The contract is presumed to have been agreed full-time (Article 153(2)).
• Was there nothing in writing? The contract counts as agreed full-time (Article 153(3)).

Keep the contract, your payslips and the time records. If you need to reconstruct your real hours, the working time records guide explains what the company must keep, and the payslip guide shows where your normal working period appears.

What you must be paid

Article 154(2) sets the principle: a part-time worker cannot be treated less favourably than a comparable full-time worker, unless the difference is justified by objective reasons.

Article 154(3) turns that into two rights that reach your bank account:

• Point (a), base pay and other payments, whether or not they count as remuneration, provided for by law or collective agreement or, if more favourable, those received by the comparable full-time colleague, in proportion to the normal weekly working period.
• Point (b), the meal allowance, at the amount set in the collective agreement or, if more favourable, the amount applied in the company. It is only calculated proportionally when the normal daily working period is fewer than five hours.

Breaching this article is a serious administrative offence (Article 154(4)).

The detail in point (b) is worth real money. In 2026 the tax exempt meal allowance is 6.15 euros a day in cash and 10.46 euros a day on a meal card, as set out in the meal allowance guide:

The same 20 hours a week, different outcomes. Concentrating your hours into fewer days can be worth more allowance.

On the rest of the pay package: the Christmas bonus and the holiday allowance are calculated on your pay, which is already proportional. There is no second cut for being part-time. Check the amounts in the Christmas bonus guide and the holiday allowance guide, and run the numbers in the net salary calculator.

[Common interpretation:] hours you work beyond the normal working period written into your contract are overtime and carry the supplements in Article 268, exactly as for any other worker. See the overtime pay guide and the overtime calculator.

Holiday: 22 working days, no reduction

Here intuition misleads. Holiday is counted in days, not hours.

Article 238(1) gives an annual minimum of 22 working days and makes no exception for part-time work. Working days run Monday to Friday, excluding public holidays (Article 238(2)).

If you start mid year, the normal first year rule applies: two working days of holiday per month of contract, up to 20 days, which you can take after six full months (Article 239(1)). The detail is in the first year holiday guide, and the difference between 22 and 25 days is in the 22 or 25 days guide. To simulate, use the holiday days calculator.

Child under 12? You can require part-time hours

This is not a polite request. It is a right.

Article 55(1) gives the right to work part-time to anyone with a child under 12 or, regardless of age, a child with a disability or chronic illness living with them in the same household. Either parent can exercise the right, or both in successive periods, after the supplementary parental leave (Article 55(2)).

What the law already fixes:

• How much: unless agreed otherwise, half of the comparable full-time period, worked daily in the morning, daily in the afternoon, or on three days a week, according to your request (Article 55(3)).
• For how long: extendable up to two years; three years for a third or further child; four years where the child has a disability or chronic illness (Article 55(4)).
• One limit: during that period you cannot carry on another activity incompatible with its purpose, in particular subordinate work or the continued provision of services away from your usual residence (Article 55(5)).
• At the end of the period or its extension, you return to full-time work (Article 55(6)).
• No penalty: you cannot be penalised in appraisal or in career progression (Article 55(7)). Breaching the article is a serious administrative offence (Article 55(8)).

The procedure sits in Article 57 and this is where cases are won or lost:

1. Apply in writing 30 days in advance, stating the period you want, the arrangement you are asking for, and a declaration that the child lives with you in the same household, that the maximum period is not exhausted, and that the other parent works and is not on part-time hours at the same time, or is fully prevented or barred from exercising parental responsibility (Article 57(1)).
2. The employer can only refuse on grounds of overriding operational requirements, or the impossibility of replacing you if you are indispensable (Article 57(2)).
3. It has 20 days to give its decision in writing (Article 57(3)). If it intends to refuse, it must state the grounds and you can reply in writing within five days (Article 57(4)).
4. Within the next five days, the employer sends the file for an opinion to the body responsible for equal opportunities between men and women, which is CITE (Article 57(5)). CITE has 30 days; if it does not respond, the opinion counts as favourable to the employer (Article 57(6)).
5. Unfavourable opinion? The employer can only refuse after a court decision recognising the justifying grounds (Article 57(7)).

And the safeguard that matters most: the request counts as accepted on its exact terms if the employer does not give notice of an intention to refuse within 20 days, does not inform you of the decision within five days of the opinion, or does not send the file to CITE in time (Article 57(8)). Breaching Article 57(2), (3), (5) or (7) is a serious administrative offence (Article 57(10)).

If what you need is flexibility rather than fewer hours, Article 56 gives a parallel right to a flexible schedule, with the same procedure under Article 57. There is also a separate regime for the carer worker (Article 101-C). For the rest of the leave and time off with children, see the child assistance leave guide, the parental leave guide and the continuous working day guide.

Switching between the two regimes

Article 155(1) is clear: moving from part-time to full-time, or the reverse, permanently or for a fixed period, requires a written agreement. Nobody cuts your hours by unilateral decision.

• Seven days to withdraw. You can end the agreement by written notice sent to the employer up to the seventh day after signing (Article 155(2)).
• Exception: there is no withdrawal if the agreement is properly dated and the signatures were certified in person by a notary (Article 155(3)). If you are sent to a notary for something simple, now you know why.
• Agreed for a fixed period? At the end of it you have the right to return to full-time work (Article 155(4)). Failing to give those hours back is a serious administrative offence (Article 155(5)).

Article 156 closes the chapter with the employer duties. Where possible, it must consider your request to move to part-time work available in the establishment, consider the reverse request or a request to increase your hours, and facilitate access to part-time work at all levels of the company, including management posts (Article 156(1)). And it must, with no "where possible" attached, give workers timely information about the part-time and full-time posts available in the establishment, and give the collective representation bodies proper information about part-time work in the company (Article 156(2)). Failing Article 156(2) is a minor administrative offence (Article 156(3)).

If your schedule is changing through other routes, check the rules in the work schedule guide and the daily and weekly ceilings in the working hours limits guide. If you study and work, the student worker guide adds its own time off regime on top of this one. And if you are called "part-time" but invoice as a freelancer, the problem may be a different one: see the false self-employment guide.

One last point people miss: working part-time lowers the earnings your social security contributions are based on, and with it the value of future benefits such as unemployment benefit. Before accepting a cut in hours, check the impact in the unemployment benefit guide.

Are you the employer? Four points that avoid fines. First, put everything in writing with the normal daily and weekly period and the comparison with full-time work: without it the contract is treated as full-time and the pay difference is owed (Article 153(2) and (3)). Second, the meal allowance is only reduced when the normal daily period is fewer than five hours, so cutting it by default across all part-time contracts is a serious administrative offence (Article 154(3) and (4)). Third, respect the Article 57 deadlines: 20 days to decide, five days to send the file to CITE; silence makes the request accepted on the exact terms the worker asked for. Fourth, advertise the vacancies, part-time and full-time, inside the establishment (Article 156(2)). The rest of the formal 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