We hereby inform the business community and other interested parties that the new Labour Law, Law no. 13/2023, of 25 August, has been published in the Official Gazette on 25 August 2023.
The new Labour Law repeals Law no. 23/2007, of 01 August, but it can only be applied as of 21 February 2024, so facts that were constituted or started before that date, namely those relating to the probationary period, holidays, forfeiture and prescription periods, formalities for applying disciplinary penalties and termination of employment contracts will continue to be governed by Law no. 23/2007, of 01 August.
The following new features of the new Labour Law, among others, are worth highlighting:
- Existing small and medium-sized companies may freely enter into fixed-term contracts for the first eight years of their activity.
- Evidence obtained by means of remote surveillance in the workplace of which the employee has no written knowledge, which is not intended for the protection and safety of people and property, or which is not part of the employer's or its sector's normal production process, is null and void.
- Guardians and foster carers now have special rights relating to the care of minors under their guardianship and in foster care, similar to the rights guaranteed to working mothers and fathers.
- During pregnancy and up to one year after the end of the maternity leave the employee's employment contract cannot be terminated, except in cases of dismissal or expiry.
- Employers who employ up to ten employees are now called micro-employers.
- Failure to state the reason justifying the conclusion of a fixed-term contract converts it into an open-ended employment contract.
- Establishment of prior notice time limits for non-renewal of fixed-term contracts and the legal consequences for non-compliance.
- Establishment of the maximum period of validity of fixed-term contracts for uncertain period under penalty of conversion to open-ended employment contracts.
- Establishment of new grounds for suspending the statutes of limitations (prescription periods) on rights arising from employment contracts.
- Provision of a sanctions regime for harassment at work.
- Inclusion of the deadline for conducting production of evidence procedures.
- Causes of invalidity of the disciplinary proceedings are no longer remediable after the proceedings has been concluded.
- Provision of a regime of abuse of disciplinary powers and respective sanctioning regime.
- Establishment of a maximum geographical perimeter on which relocation is not deemed transfer of an employee.
- Establishment of the alternating working hours regime.
- Listing of the activities that cannot be suspended due to national holidays and ad hoc holidays.
- The right to annual leave becomes twelve days in the first year of employment contract and thirty days from the second year onwards.
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Read the original publication at Sal & Caldeira Advogados.
