Portugal: Decent Work Agenda Labour Code Amendments (Law 13/2023)

PortugalLegislationApplicable

Law 13/2023 enacts major labor law reforms in Portugal under the Decent Work Agenda (Agenda do Trabalho Digno), transposing Directive (EU) 2019/1152 and amending the Portuguese Labour Code (Código do Trabalho). The Warden Watch focuses specifically on the provisions regulating artificial intelligence and algorithmic decision-making in the workplace. The law establishes a direct duty on employers to provide individual workers with written information regarding the parameters, criteria, rules, and instructions underlying algorithms or AI systems used in decisions affecting recruitment, hiring, employment conditions, career progression, termination, profiling, and performance monitoring. It also establishes collective information rights, requiring employers to provide the same algorithmic details to worker committees and trade union delegates. Furthermore, the law explicitly extends statutory non-discrimination protections to algorithmic decision-making and creates a legal presumption of employment for digital platform workers where algorithmic direction or supervision is present.

Impact

What this means for HR and vendors

HR and recruitment teams

HR and talent acquisition teams operating in Portugal must identify and audit all AI systems or algorithmic models used in recruitment, performance tracking, scheduling, profiling, or termination. Organizations should update employment contracts or written disclosures to provide candidates and employees with clear information on algorithmic parameters, criteria, and decision rules within statutory timelines. Employers must also establish protocols to disclose this information to worker committees and union representatives upon request. Additionally, HR teams must ensure automated screening systems do not produce discriminatory outcomes across recruitment and career evaluation workflows.

HR technology vendors

HR technology providers supplying automated hiring, scheduling, employee monitoring, or performance evaluation systems to Portuguese employers face direct commercial expectations to assist client compliance. While the statutory obligations under the Labour Code bind employers as deployers, vendors must supply clear, non-technical documentation detailing the parameters, decision criteria, weighting rules, and operational logic governing their algorithms. Providers should ensure systems support transparency disclosures, facilitate meaningful human oversight, and supply clear audit trails showing how automated recommendations or worker profiles are derived without exposing proprietary source code.

Key obligations

What organizations need to do

Practical obligation briefings focused on what the requirement is, who it applies to, when it applies and what teams should consider doing.

DeployerTransparency & Notice

Provider Algorithmic Documentation and Compliance Support

OBLIGATION

APPLIES TO

STATUS

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Not legal advice

This page is regulatory intelligence only. Organizations should seek guidance from legal counsel before making compliance decisions.

Employment-focused extraction

This may be part of wider regulation. The Warden Watch extracts and displays the parts relevant to employment, HR and recruitment decision-making.

HR and recruitment teams

HR technology vendors

Individual Algorithmic Transparency and Written Notice

Algorithmic Information Rights for Worker Representatives

Non-Discrimination in Algorithmic Decision-Making

Proof of Written Notice and Disclosure Recordkeeping

Provider Algorithmic Documentation and Compliance Support

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