"As holidays are a constitutional right guaranteed to all workers, under the terms of article 59 of the Portuguese Constitution. The worker has the right to a period of at least 22 working days of paid holidays per year, which are due on 1 January.

However, there are some specificities to take into account, namely when there is a temporary impediment to the provision of work by the worker, that is, when they are on sick leave.

In this sense, it is important to distinguish between two scenarios. 

First, in the case of sick leave of less than 30 days, there is no change to the general framework, and the worker is entitled to the totality of their holidays.

However, in the case of sick leave of more than 30 days, article 296, paragraph 1, of the Labour Code determines that the employment contract is suspended if there is a "...temporary impediment due to a fact relating to the worker that is not attributable to them and which lasts for more than one month, namely illness...".

In this case, if the sick leave begins and ends in the same calendar year, the worker maintains the right to the totality of the holiday days.

However, if the sick leave begins in one calendar year and ends in another, if the worker, on the date of the beginning of the sick leave, has not yet taken the holidays due on 1 January of the year in which the impediment to the provision of work began, they are entitled to the payment of the holidays not taken, to be settled by the employer. Subsequently, in the year of cessation of sick leave, the holidays are counted in the same way as in the year of admission, that is, the worker is entitled to two working days of holidays for each month of duration of the contract, up to 20 days, in accordance with paragraph 1 of article 239, by reference to paragraph 6 of article 239, both of the Labour Code.

It should be noted that in the year following the cessation of the impediment, the general framework referred to above applies again, and the worker is entitled to 22 working days of holidays.

We can therefore conclude that the worker always has the right to take holidays, and that there may only be a reduction in holidays in very specific cases."

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The publication of the column 'Work and taxes (un)complicated' is fortnightly. You can also be a part of it. Send your doubts, questions or suggestions for topics to the email address economia@noticiasaominuto.com.

Dantas Rodrigues has been a lawyer since 1993 and a partner at Dantas Rodrigues & Associados. He has also been a professor of Law at the Polytechnic Higher Education since 1995.