A good employment contract starts before anyone writes a clause. The employer first needs to settle the role, workplace, hours, pay and any terms that make this hire different from the standard case.
Short version: use this guide and template for a standard indefinite-term employee hired in Portugal. Stop and get specific advice when the role, location or incentives make the hire unusual.
1. Agree the job before drafting
Write down the legal employer and employee details, job title, professional category, duties, reporting line, start date and workplace. If the employee will work remotely or in a hybrid model, decide where work may happen, what equipment the company supplies and how expenses are handled.
The written information duties in Article 106 of the Portuguese Labour Code are broader than a job title and salary. The contract or accompanying documents should make the main working conditions easy to find and understand.
2. Set hours, pay and time off clearly
Confirm normal working hours, the work schedule, salary, payment frequency, benefits and meal allowance. Do not leave probation, holiday rules or collective bargaining coverage to guesswork.
For remote work, the agreement needs additional detail. Articles 165 to 169-B cover the remote-work arrangement, equipment, costs and employer duties. A general “remote-friendly” sentence is not enough.
3. Check the terms that often need separate judgment
Confidentiality, intellectual property, conflicts, exclusivity and post-employment restrictions are not interchangeable boilerplate. Match each clause to the role and to what the company can justify.
The same applies to probation. The correct period depends on the employment type and role. Confirm the current rule before signing instead of copying a number from another employee's contract.
4. Know when this template is not enough
This starting point does not cover fixed-term hires, executives, cross-border remote work, equity or complex incentive plans, immigration, regulated roles, collective bargaining analysis, contested terminations or bespoke post-employment restrictions.
If any of those apply, use the template to organise the facts, then ask a Portuguese employment lawyer to adapt the contract.
5. Use Portuguese as the governing text
The download contains Portuguese and English side by side. The Portuguese text is the governing version. The English translation helps international founders and employees review the same terms, but it should not silently change the Portuguese agreement.
Primary sources checked
- Portuguese Labour Code — checked 14 August 2026; locators: Articles 106–112 and 165–169-B.
- Directive (EU) 2019/1152 — locators: Articles 4–7 on written information.
- General Data Protection Regulation — locators: Articles 5, 6 and 13.
