For serious misconduct under Portuguese labor law, you must issue a written Nota de Culpa, allow 10 working days for the employee’s written defense, and reach a final decision within 30 days of concluding the investigation. The process itself must start within 60 days of the employer learning of the infraction, and any preventive suspension requires written justification plus continued full pay. When employment runs through an EOR, the client company still has to supply the documented evidence that makes the dismissal defensible.
TL;DR:
- The Nota de Culpa must identify specific conduct, dates, and circumstances; send copies to the works council and relevant union when required.
- The employee has 10 working days after receiving the accusation to respond in writing and request evidence or witnesses, which the employer must assess.
- The 60 day clock starts when the competent authority learns of misconduct, even informally; the final decision is due within 30 days after investigation ends.
- Preventive suspension requires written, specific reasons and must fall within 30 days before or alongside the accusation; full salary must continue throughout.
- With an EOR, the client must provide incident records, witness details, access logs, and prior warnings; courts can order reinstatement or compensation for unlawful dismissal.
Table of Contents
- What Portuguese law requires: Nota de Culpa and the right to be heard
- Deadlines HR must track: the 60, 10, and 30 day rules
- Preventive suspension: removing an employee while keeping them paid
- Running the investigation: evidence, witnesses, and handling disputes
- EOR responsibilities: what clients must hand over
- How courts review proportionality and the right to defense
- A step-by-step checklist HR teams can use today
- What experienced HR teams get wrong about Portuguese discipline
- How we support clients through Portuguese disciplinary procedures
- FAQ
- Sources
What Portuguese law requires: Nota de Culpa and the right to be heard
Dismissal for just cause in Portugal starts with a formal written accusation, the Nota de Culpa, describing the alleged facts in enough detail for the employee to respond. According to Chambers and Partners’ employment guide, this document must set out the conduct, dates, and circumstances precisely because vague allegations rarely survive judicial review.
Article 353 of the Labour Code requires sending a copy to the works council and, where the employee is a union representative, to the relevant union. Skipping this step is treated as a serious offense when a union representative is involved.
Once notified, the employee has 10 working days to submit a written defense and request that specific evidence be produced or witnesses heard, a right Chambers and Partners describes as central to the process.
HR teams should keep these points in view:
- Draft the Nota de Culpa with concrete dates, actions, and supporting references, never general accusations.
- Send copies to the works council and union representative when applicable.
- Log the exact delivery date, since it triggers the 10 working day countdown.
- Treat any defense request for evidence as something you must formally consider, not dismiss informally.
Deadlines HR must track: the 60, 10, and 30 day rules
Missing a procedural deadline in Portugal does not just slow things down. It can make the entire dismissal void.
A 2021 court ruling confirms that the employer must start the disciplinary procedure within 60 days of the date the competent disciplining authority first became aware of the infraction. Wait longer, and the right to sanction can lapse entirely.
The employer has 30 days after the investigatory phase concludes to issue a final decision, according to the same ruling, a rule that applies even when the case looks straightforward.
Key deadlines to track:
- 60 days from knowledge of the infraction to open the procedure.
- 10 working days for the employee to submit a written defense after receiving the Nota de Culpa.
- 30 days from the end of the instruction phase to issue the final decision.
The ruling also notes that employers frequently assume minor sanctions do not need the full procedure. They still require proportionality and a genuine right to be heard, and skipping either can invalidate the sanction regardless of how small it seemed.
Preventive suspension: removing an employee while keeping them paid
Preventive suspension lets an employer remove an employee from the workplace during a serious disciplinary case, but it comes with strict conditions. Under Portuguese Labour Code provisions on suspension, suspension can be ordered within the 30 days before the Nota de Culpa or at the same time as it, when the employee’s continued presence is inconvenient to the investigation or the workplace.
Critically, the employer must continue paying the employee’s full salary throughout the suspension. Suspending someone and cutting their pay at the same time is one of the most common and most punished employer errors in Portugal.
Before issuing a suspension:
- Confirm the timing falls within the 30 day window before or alongside the Nota de Culpa.
- Prepare a written justification explaining why the employee’s presence is inconvenient.
- Set up payroll continuation so full salary keeps running without interruption.
Pro Tip: Write the suspension memo the same day you issue the order, with specific operational reasons, since courts often treat a contemporaneous explanation as decisive evidence of good faith.
Running the investigation: evidence, witnesses, and handling disputes
The instruction phase (instrução) is where cases are won or lost. Before anything else, identify who holds disciplinary authority and record precisely when that person or body learned of the alleged misconduct, since this date anchors the 60 day clock discussed earlier.
A workable investigation sequence looks like this:
- Secure objective evidence immediately: access logs, emails, CCTV footage, or system records tied to the incident.
- Take written witness statements close to the event, noting who was present and what they observed directly.
- Preserve a clear record of who collected each piece of evidence and when, so its origin is never in question later.
- When the employee requests additional evidence or an independent check during their 10 day defense window, evaluate the request on its merits rather than refusing it outright.
- If a request is denied as dilatory or irrelevant, document the reasoning in writing at the time, not retroactively.
Pro Tip: Treat every piece of evidence as something a labor court will eventually read, because in practice, it often will.
EOR responsibilities: what clients must hand over
When an EOR employs staff on a client’s behalf, the EOR is the formal employer of record, but it cannot build a defensible disciplinary case out of nothing. Chambers and Partners notes that EORs cannot lawfully dismiss employees without complete, documented evidence supplied by the client acting as de facto manager, since vague or unsupported allegations create exposure for both parties.
That means the client company, not the EOR, usually holds the underlying facts: incident reports, witness names, access logs, and any prior warnings. Before a Nota de Culpa can be drafted, that material needs to be in the EOR’s hands.
- Incident reports written close to the date of the alleged misconduct.
- Names and contact details of witnesses who can provide statements.
- Access logs, system records, or other objective evidence tied to the incident.
- Copies of any prior warnings or disciplinary history for the employee.
| Responsibility | Typically held by |
|---|---|
| Formal Nota de Culpa and legal notifications | EOR |
| Incident facts, witness identification, prior warnings | Client company |
| Payroll continuation during suspension | EOR |
| Final decision and sanction documentation | EOR, based on client evidence |
Our EOR services in Portugal are built around this split: we draft the procedural documents, while making clear upfront what evidence the client needs to prepare.
How courts review proportionality and the right to defense
Portuguese labor courts do not rubber-stamp employer decisions. Regional court rulings on suspension and procedure show that courts examine whether the sanction actually fits the breach, not just whether the paperwork was filed correctly.
Denying the employee’s right to produce evidence or to be properly heard can render a dismissal unlawful, exposing the employer to reinstatement or compensation. The Constitutional Tribunal has separately stressed that the adversarial principle, the employee’s right to contest the accusation, cannot be shortcut, and courts routinely reverse procedures that try.
Ways to reduce exposure:
- Write contemporaneous reasoning explaining why the chosen sanction matches the severity of the conduct.
- Retain every document generated during the process, from the Nota de Culpa to witness statements.
- Have a local legal reviewer check the file before the final decision is issued, not after.
A step-by-step checklist HR teams can use today
Running a compliant procedure comes down to sequencing. Use this as a working checklist:
- Record the date the competent authority learned of the infraction; this starts the 60 day clock.
- Draft the Nota de Culpa with specific facts, dates, and references; send copies to the works council and union when applicable.
- Open the instruction phase: collect logs, emails, and written witness statements with clear provenance.
- Track the employee’s 10 working day window for a written defense and respond to evidence requests in writing.
- Issue the final decision within 30 days of concluding the instruction phase, with written reasoning tied to the evidence.
| Stage | Key document | Deadline |
|---|---|---|
| Initiation | Internal case record | Within 60 days of knowledge |
| Accusation | Nota de Culpa | Sent once facts are confirmed |
| Defense | Employee’s written response | 10 working days after notice |
| Decision | Final decision memo | 30 days after instruction ends |
Keep file names consistent (case number, stage, date) and store everything in one audit-ready folder from day one.
What experienced HR teams get wrong about Portuguese discipline
Most international HR teams treat Portuguese disciplinary procedure as a formality to clear quickly. That instinct is exactly backward. The procedure is the substance, not a wrapper around a decision you have already made.
The companies that get burned are rarely the ones with weak cases on the facts. They are the ones who decided the outcome first and treated the Nota de Culpa, the defense window, and the instruction phase as paperwork to complete rather than a genuine fact-finding exercise a court will later scrutinize. Courts in Portugal read the file for whether the employer actually listened, not whether the right boxes were ticked.
The second underestimated risk is timing discipline. A 60 day window from knowledge, not from the incident date, trips up employers who assume they have more runway than they do. Treat the clock as running from the moment anyone with disciplinary authority first heard about the issue, informally included.
We present this view based on handling these procedures alongside client companies operating in Portugal.
— Paulo
How we support clients through Portuguese disciplinary procedures
We coordinate the evidence flow between the business and the formal employer of record, draft the Nota de Culpa, and record each stage of the instruction phase to ensure compliance with statutory timelines. For straightforward cases, procedural steps are handled directly with English-speaking support. For complex dismissals with potential litigation risk, local counsel is involved before the final decision is drafted.
- Managed Employer of Record services that include disciplinary procedure support as part of ongoing compliance.
- Payroll outsourcing in Portugal that keeps suspension-period salary payments accurate and on time.
- A compliance review of your current disciplinary files before an issue escalates.
If you are running employee discipline in Portugal without a local entity, talk to our EOR team about how we handle the procedural side while you focus on the underlying facts.
This article is general information, not a substitute for advice from a qualified lawyer. Consult a qualified legal professional about your own circumstances before acting on anything here.
FAQ
What happens if an employer misses the 60-day deadline?
Missing the 60 day window from the date the competent authority learned of the infraction generally causes the right to open disciplinary proceedings for that specific conduct to lapse, a point confirmed by court rulings on the timeline. The employer typically cannot restart the same case once that period has run.
Can an employee work during preventive suspension?
No. Preventive suspension removes the employee from the workplace for the duration of the investigation, but Portuguese Labour Code provisions require the employer to keep paying full salary throughout, regardless of the suspension.
What sanctions are available under Portuguese labor law?
Sanctions range from a verbal or written warning up to loss of seniority days, suspension without pay, and dismissal for just cause, with the choice required to match the severity of the conduct under judicial review of proportionality described in regional court rulings. A minor first offense rarely supports dismissal on its own.
Who is responsible for evidence when using an EOR in Portugal?
The EOR acts as the formal employer on record, but the client company typically holds the underlying facts, incident reports, witness details, and access logs, that the EOR needs to build a defensible case. Without that material supplied promptly, the EOR cannot lawfully move forward with a Nota de Culpa.
What remedies can a court order for an unlawful dismissal?
Courts reviewing a flawed disciplinary procedure can order reinstatement or compensation, depending on the circumstances and how seriously the procedural guarantees were breached, per regional court rulings. The outcome depends heavily on whether the employer respected the employee’s right to produce evidence and be heard.
Sources
- Employment 2026 – Portugal | Chambers and Partners
- Acórdão (2021) — disciplinary timelines
- Regional court rulings on suspension and procedure