Night work in Portugal: hours, pay and rights

Which hours count as night work?

Night work is work performed in a period with a minimum duration of 7 hours and a maximum of 11 hours that includes the interval between 0h and 5h (article 223 of the Portuguese Labour Code)¹. Each sector can set its own night period by collective agreement, within those limits.

Absent a specific collective-agreement rule, the night period runs from 22h on one day to 7h on the next.

The detail most people get wrong: only the hours inside the night period count. On a shift from 18h to 2h, the hours from 18h to 22h are day hours and those from 22h to 2h are night hours. To count your monthly hours, the worked-hours calculator helps with the sum.

How much do night hours pay?

Night work is paid with a 25% uplift over the pay of equivalent work performed during the day (article 266(1))². That is the general legal minimum. The collective agreement may:

• set a different uplift (some sectors pay more);
• replace the uplift with an equivalent working-time reduction;
• replace it with a fixed increase of the base salary.

The base for the uplift is the official hourly value of article 271³:

Hourly value = (monthly salary × 12) ÷ (52 × weekly hours)

Here is how it changes with the salary, at 40 weekly hours:

Run the numbers for your own case, with your month's night hours, in the night-work pay calculator.

Who falls outside the uplift

The 25% uplift is not for everyone who works at night. Unless the collective agreement says otherwise, it is not due (article 266(3))²:

• in activities carried out exclusively or predominantly at night, such as shows and public entertainment;
• in activities that must by their nature run at night, at the public's disposal;
• when the salary was already set taking night work into account.

In those cases, what you receive depends on the contract and the sector's collective agreement.

Shift work and the shift allowance

Rotating-shift workers receive the night uplift for the hours that fall inside the night period, like any other worker. A morning shift carries no uplift; a night shift carries it on its night hours.

The shift allowance (subsídio de turno) is a different thing: it is not required by general law. It exists only where the collective agreement or the employment contract creates it, at the value defined there. Many companies pay it to compensate rotating schedules, but a worker whose agreement does not include it cannot demand it merely for working at night.

The rights of night workers

Anyone who performs at least 3 hours of normal night work per day is, as a rule, a night worker (article 224)¹, with specific protections:

• the normal daily working time should not exceed 8 hours, as a weekly average, and in activities with special risks the 8-hour limit is absolute;
• the right to free health exams before starting night work and at regular intervals afterwards (article 225);
• a pregnant, postpartum or breastfeeding worker is entitled to be excused from night work, upon medical certificate, notably in the 112 days before and after childbirth (article 58);
• minors may not, as a rule, work between 20h and 7h (article 76).

The uplift pays income tax and Social Security

The night uplift is ordinary employment pay (category A): it enters income tax (IRS), at your rate, and pays the 11% employee Social Security, like the rest of the salary. It does not benefit from the reduced withholding that applies to overtime; that rule is specific to trabalho suplementar. To see the effect on your net salary, use the net-salary calculator.

Mind the boundary with overtime too: night work is the normal hours of your schedule that fall at night; overtime is hours beyond your schedule, with its own uplifts of 25% to 50%. An overtime hour worked at night accumulates both regimes. For those, use the overtime pay calculator.

A worked example from start to finish

Imagine a €1,000 salary, 40 weekly hours and 60 night hours in a month:

• Hourly value: (1,000 × 12) ÷ (52 × 40) = €5.77.
• 25% uplift: €1.44 per hour; night hour: €7.21.
• The 60 night hours pay €432.69, which is €86.54 more than the same hours by day.
• Over a year at the same hours, the uplift adds up to €1,038.46 gross.

Run the numbers for your own case in the night-work pay calculator.