Self-declaration of illness in Portugal: 3 days, no doctor

You wake up with a fever and cannot work. In Portugal you do not need to queue at a health centre for two days of flu. You request a self-declaration of illness on SNS 24, the National Health Service's online portal and app, in about 5 minutes, and your absence is justified. Two limits worth memorising: 3 consecutive days per declaration and 2 declarations per calendar year (Art. 254(5) of the Labour Code). And one piece of bad news: those days are not paid.

What it is and who can use it

Rita, 27, works behind the counter of a pharmacy in Viseu. On Monday she wakes up with a temperature of 38.5. She has no assigned family doctor and the nearest emergency service is 40 minutes away. Before 2023 she had two options: go to work anyway, or lose the morning waiting for a medical note. Today she has a third: she opens the SNS 24 app, requests a self-declaration of illness and sends the code to her manager. She stays home and recovers.

The self-declaration of illness (autodeclaracao de doenca, or ADD in the SNS's shorthand) has existed since 1 May 2023. It came with the Decent Work Agenda (Law 13/2023), which rewrote Art. 254 of the Labour Code. That article says how you prove an absence due to illness. Before, only a statement from a hospital or health centre or a medical certificate would do. Now the statement from the SNS digital service also counts (254(2)), and the law itself defines it as a self-declaration on one's honour, issued only when the illness does not exceed 3 consecutive days, and at most twice a year (254(5)).

"On your honour" means you take responsibility: nobody examines you, nobody checks. That is why the limits are tight and the penalty for lying is heavy (see below).

You can request one if:

• you are 16 or over (if you are 16 or 17, see also working under 18 in Portugal);
• you are ill and the illness stops you from working;
• the illness lasts up to 3 days in a row;
• you have not yet used your 2 declarations for this calendar year.

In the Azores and Madeira the law accepts the equivalent statement from the regional health services' digital service (Art. 254(2) and (5)). Same principle.

How to request it, step by step

Three routes. The first two are immediate.

On the SNS 24 portal:

1. Go to sns24.gov.pt and log in (the button is in the top right corner; the SNS 24 guide itself explains the login options).
2. In the side menu, choose Documentos e certificados (documents and certificates).
3. Choose Autodeclaracao de doenca and click Pedir autodeclaracao (request).
4. Fill in the required fields, including the date your illness started, and click Seguinte (next).
5. Check the details and click Submeter (submit).

On the SNS 24 app: same path. Menu Documentos e certificados, then Autodeclaracao de doenca, then Pedir. Enter the start date, accept the terms and submit.

By phone, SNS 24 line (808 24 24 24): only if you cannot do it online.

After submitting you receive an access code by SMS or email. You can also find it on the portal, in the app or through the phone line. That code is your proof.

Two different clocks, easy to confuse:

Rita was ill Monday to Wednesday. She can request the declaration until Friday. But she messaged her manager at 8 a.m. on Monday and sent the code that same morning. That is what you should do: do not wait for the deadline. No notice means an unjustified absence (Art. 253(5)); no proof when the employer asks for it also means unjustified (Art. 254(6)). How to notify properly is in unforeseeable absence: how to notify and prove it.

What your employer can and cannot do

Your employer cannot refuse the self-declaration. It is one of the four forms of proof of illness the law accepts, alongside a hospital statement, a health centre statement and a medical certificate (Art. 254(2)). [Common interpretation:] since the law puts them on the same footing, the employer cannot demand an additional medical certificate for the same 3 days.

What the employer can do:

• Validate the code. On the SNS 24 page "Validar autodeclaracao de doenca", with the code, your full name or NISS (Social Security number) and your date of birth, they confirm the declaration exists and is valid.
• Demand the proof within 15 days of your notice of absence (Art. 254(1)). You hand over the code within a reasonable time.
• Ask for the illness to be checked by a doctor, under specific legislation (Art. 254(3)). If you refuse without a reasonable ground, the absence becomes unjustified (254(6)).

What the employer cannot do: mark the absence as unjustified when you have the self-declaration and handed it over. A justified absence does not affect any of your rights, except pay for those days (Art. 255(1) and (2)). If the employer cuts your seniority, disciplines you or counts the absence as unjustified, object in writing and file a complaint with the ACT. What is at stake with an unjustified absence, including the risk of just cause after 5 consecutive or 10 separate ones in a year, is in consequences of unjustified absences.

What you lose: the 3 days are unpaid

This is the part nobody likes reading. A sick absence is justified, but you lose pay for it when you are covered by a Social Security scheme for illness (Art. 255(2)(a) Labour Code), and every employee in Portugal is. The idea behind the law is that Social Security pays for illness, not the employer. Except Social Security has a 3 day waiting period during which it pays nothing (Art. 13 of Decree-Law 28/2004). Result: for the 3 days of a self-declaration, nobody pays. It is exactly what happens in the first 3 days of a normal sick leave. The full scale is in sick leave pay in Portugal: 2026 table.

Three ways to soften the loss:

1. Check your collective agreement (CCT) and your contract. Some pay the first days of illness, or part of them. If they do, the self-declaration serves as proof all the same.
2. Swap the lost pay for holiday days. This is your right, not the employer's: you declare in writing that you give up as many holiday days as the days you missed, and you receive full pay (Art. 257(1)(a)). You can only give up days above 20 working days (Art. 238(5)): with 22 days of holiday, you can swap at most 2; with 25, at most 5. Your holiday allowance is not reduced (Art. 257(2)). The employer cannot object (257(3)); if they do, it is a serious offence (257(4)).
3. Make up the time with extra work, within the limits of Art. 204, if your collective agreement allows it (Art. 257(1)(b)).

And one recent exception worth knowing: a worker with endometriosis or adenomyosis causing incapacitating pain can take up to 3 consecutive days a month without losing pay, by handing in the medical prescription once (Art. 252-B, added by Law 32/2025). In that case the proof is the prescription, not the self-declaration.

Self-declaration or sick leave certificate: which one to use

The practical rule: short, mild illness with no need for a doctor, self-declaration. Everything else, sick leave certificate. If you already know you will need more than 3 days, go straight to the doctor. You save one of your two declarations for the year.

If you get worse: from 3 days to sick leave

The self-declaration cannot be extended. If on day 3 you are still unfit, book an appointment. Two things to do at that appointment:

• Tell the doctor you have an active self-declaration. They can see it in their professional area.
• Ask for the sick leave certificate (CIT) to start on the same date as the self-declaration. The certificate replaces the self-declaration period. That way Social Security counts the illness from day 1, the 3 day waiting period is already behind you and sick pay starts on day 4. If the certificate started only on day 4, a new waiting period would run and you would lose another 3 days without money.

From there the normal scheme applies: 55% of your reference pay up to day 30, 60% up to day 90 and so on. The full table is in sick leave pay: 2026 values. And no, you cannot be fired for being on sick leave.

Careful with the honour clause

The self-declaration is easy to get, which is exactly why the law is tough on abuse. A statement made with fraudulent intent counts as a false statement for the purposes of just cause for dismissal (Art. 254(4)). And "false statements regarding the justification of absences" is one of the examples of just cause the Code lists (Art. 351(2)(f)). You do not need to have lied ten times: one self-declaration to go to a festival, if the employer can prove it, is enough to open disciplinary proceedings.

Four precautions:

1. Only use it when you are actually ill. A hangover, tiredness and "I need a day" are not illness.
2. Do not use it to stretch weekends with an invented illness. An unjustified absence next to a rest day or public holiday is a serious infraction and you also lose pay for those adjacent days (Art. 256(2) and (3)).
3. If you go back before the 3 days are up, report the early return on Seguranca Social Direta. The declaration is used up anyway, but your record is correct.
4. Keep the SMS or email with the code and the message in which you notified your employer. If there is a dispute months later, that is your evidence.

If you are ill and have already used both declarations for the year, the route is a medical appointment. A medical note or a sick leave certificate proves the absence just the same (Art. 254(2)). What you lose or keep for each type of absence is in justified absences: when you lose pay.

For employers: how to handle a self-declaration

A self-declaration of illness is legal proof of the absence and cannot be refused (Art. 254(2) and (5) of the Labour Code). What you can do: ask for the access code within 15 days of the notice of absence (254(1)) and validate it on the SNS 24 page "Validar autodeclaracao de doenca", with the worker's full name or NISS and date of birth. If validation fails or the worker does not hand over the code within a reasonable time, the absence is unjustified (254(6)). Having the illness checked by a doctor remains possible, under the specific legislation (254(3)). In payroll, the self-declaration days are processed as a justified absence without pay (Art. 255(2)(a)), unless the collective agreement pays the first days of illness; if the worker asks to swap them for holiday days under Art. 257, you cannot object, on pain of a serious offence. The 2 per year limit is enforced by SNS 24 itself: the worker cannot issue a third one. If you suspect fraud, the route is disciplinary proceedings with evidence, never a unilateral deduction or marking the absence as unjustified without grounds.