Claiming for a Work Accident in Portugal

Last verified: October 2026.

Who this is for

• You are an employee in Portugal, of any nationality, and were hurt at work or on your way to or from work.
• You are an intern, trainee, or apprentice injured during training.
• A family member died after an accident at work and you want to know what the family receives.

Not for you if: you are off sick for a reason that has nothing to do with work. Read Claiming Sickness Allowance in Portugal instead.

If you are hurt at work, or on your normal route to or from work, you have a work accident (acidente de trabalho). Your employer must insure you, and the insurer pays your treatment and part of your lost pay. You do not need to prove anyone was at fault.

Tell your employer within 48 hours. While you cannot work at all, you get 70% of your pay. Your right to go to court ends one year after your formal medical discharge (alta clínica). Social security does not pay for work accidents; the insurer does.

Who is covered

Every employee is covered, in any kind of business, including non-profits. Interns, trainees, and apprentices are covered too.

If you are a foreign worker, the law treats you exactly like a Portuguese worker. Your family gets the same protection. Your nationality and type of residence permit do not matter.

There is one exception. If a foreign company sends you to Portugal for temporary or occasional work, an agreement between countries may apply your home country's rules instead.

Civil servants have a separate scheme for accidents at work. Self-employed people must take out their own work accident insurance.

Check your payslip. By law, your payslip (recibo de vencimento) must name the insurer that covers you. If no insurer is named, ask your employer why. For how to read a payslip, see Employment Contracts, Pay, and Worker Rights in Portugal.

What counts as a work accident

A work accident is one that happens at your place and time of work and causes injury, illness, or death that reduces your ability to work or earn.

• Place of work means anywhere you are, or must go, because of your job, while under your employer's control.
• Time of work includes getting ready before your shift, related tasks after it, and normal or forced breaks.
• If you work from home, your place of work is the address in your telework agreement.

It also counts as a work accident if it happens:

• On your journey to or from work.
• While doing a task on your own initiative that could benefit your employer.
• At a workers' meeting, or while acting as a workers' representative.
• At a training course at work, or elsewhere with your employer's permission.
• Where you collect your pay, or receive treatment for an earlier work accident.
• While job hunting in the paid hours the law gives you when your contract is ending.
• Outside work hours or place, on a task your employer ordered or agreed to.

Your commute

The journey is covered on the routes you normally use, in the time it normally takes. That includes travel between:

• Your home (usual or temporary) and your workplace.
• Two workplaces, if you have more than one job.
• Your workplace and where you eat your meals.
• Your home or workplace and where you collect pay or get treatment for an earlier accident.
• A place your employer sent you to, and your usual workplace or home.

A short stop for an everyday need does not end the cover. Nor does a detour forced by events outside your control. Stopping at the pharmacy on the way home is still covered.

The law is on your side. An injury seen at the place and time of work, or on the commute, is presumed to come from a work accident. If the injury appears only later, you must show the link.

When the insurer can refuse

Your employer and its insurer do not have to pay if:

• You caused the accident on purpose.
• You broke a safety rule set by your employer or the law, without good reason.
• The accident came only from your gross negligence.
• You had lost the use of reason, unless that came from the work itself, was not your choice, or your employer knew and let you work anyway.

These exceptions are narrow. Breaking a safety rule is excused if, given your education or access to information, you would hardly have known it or understood it. Gross negligence means extreme recklessness. Doing a dangerous job the way your trade normally does it, or trusting your experience, is not gross negligence.

What to do after an accident

1. Get help first. Your employer must arrange immediate medical care and suitable transport as soon as it knows. This comes before anyone decides whether the claim is valid. In an emergency, call 112.
2. Tell your employer within 48 hours, in person or in writing. Put it in writing if you can, and keep a copy. You do not need to if your employer saw the accident or learned of it in that time.
3. Check your employer reports it. An insured employer must tell its insurer within 24 hours of learning about it. An uninsured employer must report it in writing to the labour court within eight days, and at once by email if the worker died.
4. Keep every receipt for travel, meals, and accommodation linked to your treatment. The insurer must refund them.
5. Write down the date of your medical discharge. Your one-year deadline runs from it.

If you were too badly hurt to report within 48 hours, the time starts when you are able to. If the injury shows up later, it starts when it is noticed or diagnosed. Missing the deadline does not lose you the whole claim. You lose only the part of the harm caused because your employer could not help you in time.

What the insurer pays: treatment

The insurer pays for everything needed to treat you and get you back to work, including:

• Doctors, surgery, tests, and home visits.
• Medicines and nursing care.
• Hospital stays.
• Prostheses and other aids, and their repair.
• Physiotherapy and rehabilitation, including adapting your workstation.
• Psychological and psychiatric care, if your doctor says you need it.
• Travel, meals, and accommodation needed to receive treatment.

What the insurer pays: money

All payments are based on your pay, not on a flat rate.

Temporary payments continue while you are in outpatient treatment or rehabilitation.

How your pay is worked out. The insurer uses your normal gross yearly pay at the date of the accident. That is 12 times your regular monthly pay, plus your Christmas and holiday subsidies and other regular yearly payments. Your employer pays your wages for the day of the accident.

If your employer declared less than you earn. The insurer pays only on the pay your employer declared, and never less than the minimum wage. Your employer must pay the difference itself. If part of your pay was not declared, raise this early in your claim.

Extra payments for serious injury and death

These are set by the social support index (IAS), which is €537.13 in 2026. The amounts below are for accidents in 2026. For more on this index, see What Is the IAS.

High incapacity grant. On top of the pension, a one-off payment of up to about €7,090 if you can never work again. It is 70% to 100% of that if you cannot do your usual job, and proportional if you are 70% or more disabled. The IAS used is the one on the date of the accident.

If the worker dies:

• A spouse or partner gets a pension of 30% of the worker's pay until retirement age, then 40%. It is 40% earlier if their own health seriously limits their ability to work. Children may also get a pension.
• A death grant of about €7,090, split half to the spouse or partner and half to the children with a pension.
• Funeral costs up to about €2,363, or about €4,727 if the body is moved, for example to another country. Claim within one year of paying.

A spouse or partner who remarries, or starts living with someone, receives three years' pension once.

Lump sums and leaving Portugal

Small pensions are paid as a lump sum (remição) instead. This applies if you are less than 30% disabled and your yearly pension is no more than six times the minimum wage. The same cap applies to small pensions paid to family members. If you are 30% or more disabled, you can ask for part of the pension as a lump sum, within limits.

If you are a foreign worker and plan to leave Portugal for good, you and the insurer can agree to turn your pension into a lump sum. Both sides must agree. Remember that you give up a lifelong income that rises over time.

If your employer was at fault

If your employer caused the accident, or broke health and safety rules, it must pay for all your losses. That includes pain and suffering, under the general law. The pension rises too. For total incapacity or death it equals 100% of pay. The insurer still pays the normal amounts and then recovers them from your employer.

If your employer had no insurance

Not having work accident insurance is one of the most serious offences an employer can commit. Your claim still exists. The uninsured employer must pay, and must put up security for any pension. If it cannot pay, the Work Accidents Fund (Fundo de Acidentes de Trabalho) guarantees the pension. You can also report the employer to the labour inspectorate (ACT).

If the insurer refuses or you disagree

You can take your case to the labour section of your local court (tribunal do trabalho). Do this if:

• The insurer says it was not a work accident.
• You disagree with a discharge that gives you no lasting incapacity.
• Your employer has no insurance or did not report the accident.

The Public Prosecutor's Office (Ministério Público) at the labour court represents injured workers and their families. This is free and optional. You can use your own lawyer instead.

Nobody can make you sign your rights away. Any agreement to give up these rights is void. Your employer cannot take anything from your wages to cover the cost of insurance.

The deadline

Your right to claim in court ends one year after your formal medical discharge is communicated to you, or one year after the death. It does not run from the accident. In a serious case, discharge can be months or years later.

Payments set by a court then expire five years after each one falls due. That clock does not start until you personally know the amount was set.

This guide is general information, not legal or medical advice. Rules change often; check the official source before you act.

Sources

This guide is written from official sources and, where relevant, organisations' own websites.

• Procuradoria-Geral Distrital de Lisboa, Lei n.º 98/2009, of 4 September (work accidents and occupational diseases law), consolidated: https://www.pgdlisboa.pt/leis/lei_mostra_articulado.php?nid=1156&tabela=leis (articles 3 and 5 who is covered and foreign workers; 8 and 9 definition, telework, commute; 10 presumption; 12 and 13 no waiver, no deductions; 14 exclusions; 18 employer fault; 25, 26, and 99 first aid and treatment; 48 cash benefits; 59, 65, 66, and 67 death and high incapacity payments; 71 pay calculation; 75 lump sums and foreign workers leaving; 79 compulsory insurance and underdeclared pay; 80 public sector; 82 Work Accidents Fund; 86, 87, and 88 reporting deadlines, as amended by Decreto-Lei n.º 87/2024; 171 offences; 177 insurer on the payslip; 179 one year and five years), checked 2 October 2026
• Ministério Público, frequently asked questions, labour area: https://www.ministeriopublico.pt/perguntas-frequentes/area-laboral (free and optional representation of injured workers, when to go to the labour court), checked 2 October 2026
• Diário da República, Portaria n.º 480-A/2025/1 (IAS of €537.13 for 2026): https://diariodarepublica.pt/dr/detalhe/portaria/480-a-2025-993056222, carried from verified guide W2B-16

Last verified October 2026. Rules and fees change; check the official source before acting.