We have gathered information on what measures you can take as an employer in Portugal to help preserve your employees while keeping your business intact. As more information comes in, we will update this post.
If you have any questions on the impact of Coronavirus on labor laws, visit our Linkedin AMA post and leave us your questions in the comment section and we will reply.
![[AMA] Impact of Coronavirus on Labor Laws](https://www.papayaglobal.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/AMA-3-1.png.webp)
Updated: February 9, 2021
The Spanish government has extended its border closure with Portugal until March 1, thus extending its restrictions on non-essential travel with exceptions for cross-border workers, health workers, and truck drivers.
Updated: May 4, 2020
Deferment of Social Contributions
Employers with less than 50 employees of companies with over 50 employees but have shown a 20% loss of earnings from March-May 2020 are eligible to defer social contributions for the months of March-May. Employers who choose to do this will need to pay 1/3 of the amount due and defer the rest of the payment from either July to September of July to December.
Updated: March 19, 2020
Unpaid Leave
Employers can ask employees to take paid leave of up to 15 days.
Worker Suspension
Employers can look to impose a suspension of the employment contract. The employer will have to pay two thirds of the employee’s salary and no less than the minimum wage (€650 Euros).
Redundancy
Termination is a further option, however, a ‘just cause’ is required. The fact that this is a redundancy or the closing of branch due to the Corona crisis has no impact on the termination process itself.
Employees will be entitled to severance pay.
For more details see our payroll & benefits guide to Portugal
