🇵🇹 Daily Portugal news for expats & investors — FREE Subscribe

Labour

284,000 Portuguese Workers Have Now Exhausted the Annual Self-Declaration Cap as the SNS 24 Autobaixa Turns Three — Q1 2026 Pace Climbs to 1,790 a Day and 5,921 Filed on January 2 Alone

284,000 Portuguese Workers Have Now Exhausted the Annual Self-Declaration Cap as the SNS 24 Autobaixa Turns Three — Q1 2026 Pace Climbs to 1,790 a Day and 5,921 Filed on January 2 Alone

By end-March 2026, 284,000 Portuguese workers had exhausted their annual two-a-year SNS 24 self-declaration cap, per SPMS data via ECO. Q1 2026 ran at 1,790 declarations a day; 2 January alone hit 5,921. Cumulative since the May 2023 launch: 1.5 million visits diverted from primary care.
The Portugal Brief
Carris's Tourism Arm Walks Out for Twelve Hours on 2 and 9 May — STRUP Calls Two Saturday Strikes at Carristur Over Pay, the 35-Hour Week and a Stalled Acordo de Empresa, With Hop-on Hop-off Buses, Historic Trams and Tagus Cruises Exposed

Carris's Tourism Arm Walks Out for Twelve Hours on 2 and 9 May — STRUP Calls Two Saturday Strikes at Carristur Over Pay, the 35-Hour Week and a Stalled Acordo de Empresa, With Hop-on Hop-off Buses, Historic Trams and Tagus Cruises Exposed

STRUP/Fectrans has filed twelve-hour strike notices at Carristur — Carris's wholly owned tourism arm — for Saturday 2 May and Saturday 9 May, 07:30-19:30. Hop-on hop-off buses, historic-tram rentals and Tagus cruises are exposed; regular Carris city services are not covered.
The Portugal Brief
INE's March Unemployment Read Holds at 5.8% as the Labour Underutilisation Rate Slips to 9.8% — Employed Population Reaches 5.07 Million, the Highest March Reading in the Quarterly Labour Force Survey Series

INE's March Unemployment Read Holds at 5.8% as the Labour Underutilisation Rate Slips to 9.8% — Employed Population Reaches 5.07 Million, the Highest March Reading in the Quarterly Labour Force Survey Series

INE's provisional March 2026 release leaves the unemployment rate at 5.8% — flat on February, 0.5pp below March 2025 — while labour underutilisation eases to 9.8%. The employed population sits at 5.07 million, the strongest March reading in the LFS series.
The Portugal Brief
Brussels Opens an Infringement Case Over Salary-Scale Discrimination Against Fixed-Term Public-Sector Workers — Portugal Has Two Months to Realign the Lei Geral do Trabalho em Funções Públicas With Directive 1999/70/EC

Brussels Opens an Infringement Case Over Salary-Scale Discrimination Against Fixed-Term Public-Sector Workers — Portugal Has Two Months to Realign the Lei Geral do Trabalho em Funções Públicas With Directive 1999/70/EC

Brussels opens INFR(2026)4001 against Portugal for excluding fixed-term public-sector workers from salary-scale progression. Lisbon has two months to fix the LGTFP or face the EU Court of Justice — the second active case Wednesday's package landed on the Montenegro government.
The Portugal Brief