Employment 2025

PORTUGAL Law and Practice Contributed by: Nuno Ferreira Morgado and Júlia Mendes da Costa, PLMJ

2.2 Non-Solicits Non-solicitation clauses are null and void under Por - tuguese employment law. No specific penalty is pro - vided in the law concerning these agreements. In addition, non-solicitation agreements may also constitute a breach of competition law, as this type of agreement is deemed limiting and disruptive to competition and therefore illicit. Companies may be penalised with fines that may amount up to 10% of the turnover of the company. 3. Data Privacy 3.1 Data Privacy Law and Employment In Portugal, personal data processing is governed by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Law 58/2019 of August 8th, which incorporates the GDPR into Portuguese law. When it comes to employ - ees’ personal data, special category data may be col - lected, processed and used by employers when nec - essary to meet obligations and exercise rights under employment, social security and social protection law or a CBA. Portuguese data protection law establishes that the consent given by an employee does not constitute a legitimate legal basis for processing their personal data if such processing results in a legal or economic advantage for the employees, except as otherwise specified by law. However, the Portuguese supervi - sory authority (the Comissão Nacional de Proteção de Dados – CNPD) holds that this provision is not compliant with EU law. Transfers of personal data to third countries in and outside the EU (including Norway, Liechtenstein and Iceland) are only permitted if the conditions set under the GDPR are met. Furthermore, transfers to third countries (outside Europe) are also permitted if appropriate safeguards (eg, binding corporate rules and standard contractual clauses) are provided by the controller or processor of personal data and only if enforceable rights and effective legal remedies are available for the data subject. In any case, the transfer of personal data must observe the main data quality principles established under the GDPR:

• lawfulness; • the fairness and transparency principle; • the purpose limitation principle; • the data minimisation principle; • the accuracy principle; • the storage limitation principle; and • the integrity and confidentiality principle. 4. Foreign Workers 4.1 Limitations on Foreign Workers

A proper written contract is legally required when hir - ing foreign employees, except for citizens from the EU or from a state with which there is a treaty between states. This contract can only be executed after the employee has obtained the proper visa and a copy of that visa must be annexed to the contract – this will not prevent a company from signing an offer letter or a promissory employment contract to be effective after the visa is obtained. 4.2 Registration Requirements for Foreign Workers No specific registration requirements apply. The law allows the full remote working and hybrid regimes (when the employee carries out some days of remote work from their home or co-working space, and on other days works physically on company premises). As a rule, remote work is implemented by written agreement, which shall contain, most notably: • the place of telework; • the identification of the owner of any working equipment, as well as responsibility for its installa - tion and maintenance; and 5. New Work 5.1 Mobile Work • the terms and periods that the employee should physically attend company premises to work to avoid isolation from the company and their col - leagues. The following categories of employees are entitled to remote work.

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