Mandatory Training in Portugal: 40 Hours a Year and Fines

The time comes to file the Relatório Único (Portugal’s annual single employment report) and you realise you have no training records for half the team. No attendance sheets, no certificates, no plan. Now what?

Now it is too late. You should have dealt with this during the year.

Article 131 of the Portuguese Labour Code requires every company to provide a minimum of 40 hours of continuing training per year to each worker. Not providing training does not save you money. It defers the cost and adds risk. In this guide we explain exactly what the law requires, how to organise training, and what happens when you do not comply.

What Article 131 says

The Labour Code is direct. The employer must guarantee each worker the individual right to training, through a minimum annual number of training hours.

That minimum is 40 hours a year for permanent contracts. For fixed-term contracts of 3 months or more, the minimum is proportional to the contract’s duration in that year. An employee on a 6-month fixed-term contract is entitled to 20 hours.

This means that, although the right is individual (each person is entitled to the 40 hours), the company can manage delivery across two years. It can bring the training forward by up to 2 years or defer it by the same period, provided the training plan allows for it. But note: deferring is not ignoring. It is planning.

What counts as training

A frequent question. Training does not have to be a formal course in a room with a projector and a coffee break. All activities aimed at the worker’s professional development count as training hours, provided they are promoted or accepted by the employer.

In practice, this includes internal training delivered by the company itself, external training at certified providers, e-learning and distance learning, conferences and seminars relevant to the business, and processes for the recognition and validation of skills.

The content is agreed between employer and worker. Failing agreement, the employer decides, but with one condition: the training must match or be related to the work performed. Where it is not directly related, the law permits subjects such as information technology, occupational safety and health, or foreign languages.

The training plan

The company is required to organise an annual or multi-annual training plan. This plan must specify the objectives, the training providers, the training activities, and the location and timing of delivery.

Micro-enterprises are exempt from producing this formal plan. But even without the document obligation, they still have to guarantee the 40 hours.

The plan must be available for consultation by workers and their representatives. And all training information must be reported in Annex C of the Relatório Único, filed annually.

What happens when you do not provide training

This is where it gets complicated for those who do not comply.

Training hours not delivered convert into accrued hour credits. After two years, the worker can use that credit to attend training on their own initiative, simply notifying the employer 10 days in advance.

And if the worker leaves the company before using the credit? You have to compensate them financially for the outstanding hours. The amount is calculated on the worker’s hourly rate.

Which means not providing training does not remove the cost. It only pushes it forward, with interest.

Beyond the fines, companies that fail to meet training obligations can be excluded from State or European Union support and incentives. And companies seeking certification (ISO, for example) or bidding for public tenders have to evidence that training was delivered.

Who enforces it

The ACT (Autoridade para as Condições do Trabalho, Portugal’s Working Conditions Authority) is the responsible body. It can inspect the company and ask to see training records, attendance sheets, programmes, certificates, and the training plan.

The Relatório Único is another control point. In Annex C you have to declare the hours delivered, the type of activities, the number of participants and the associated costs. If the numbers do not add up, you may get a follow-up visit.

Does the company need to be certified to deliver training?

Not necessarily. The ACT accepts that the training required by Article 131 can be delivered by the employer itself, without formal certification, provided the content is relevant and documented.

However, if you want to access public funding for training (Portugal 2030, the IEFP training voucher), then you do need a certified provider.

In practice, the safest option is to work with a certified training provider, especially for mandatory areas such as occupational safety and health. It reduces the margin for error and makes documentation easier.

Common mistakes to avoid

Only remembering training when the Relatório Único falls due is the most frequent error. By then there are no records, no attendance sheets, no evidence. And reconstructing it all in a hurry does not convince the ACT.

Not documenting internal activities is another common error. Did you run internal training on the new invoicing system? Great. But if you did not record attendance, duration and content, for legal purposes it did not happen.

Ignoring accrued hour credits is a time bomb. If an employee leaves after 3 years without having received training, you have 120 hours to compensate financially.

Assuming micro-enterprises are exempt from everything is dangerous. They are exempt from the formal plan. They are not exempt from the 40 hours.

Frequently asked questions

Conclusion

Mandatory training is one of those obligations that looks easy to postpone. There is no fixed deadline like the 15 April date for the vacation map. But that makes it more dangerous, not less. Because by the time you remember, it is usually too late.

The recipe is simple: make a plan at the start of the year, deliver it over the months, document everything, and keep the records. It is a matter of organisation, not expertise.

Have your employees already received the 40 hours of training they are entitled to this year?