Employment

Employment Support Measures

Integration into the labour market and the reinforcement of family income is a way to extinguish financial obstacles for families with children, who are in situations of prolonged unemployment and/or inactivity at work.

Employment and Qualifications

3 measures

Employment Contract Insertion and Employment Contract Insertion +

What are they?

They consist of carrying out socially necessary work that meets temporary social or collective needs, within the scope of projects promoted by public or private non-profit legal entities, for a maximum period of 12 months.

Who is entitled to the EMPLOYMENT INTEGRATION CONTRACT Measure?

Unemployed persons registered with the employment services, beneficiaries of the unemployment benefit or the unemployment social benefit.

Unemployed persons who are in one of the following situations are considered a priority:

Persons with disabilities and incapacities;
Long-term unemployed persons;
Persons aged 45 or over;
Former prisoners or persons serving an open prison sentence or another non-custodial judicial measure;
Victims of domestic violence.

Who is entitled to the EMPLOYMENT INTEGRATION+ CONTRACT Measure?

Unemployed persons registered with the employment services, beneficiaries of the social integration income.

Unemployed persons registered with the employment services who are not beneficiaries of unemployment benefits or of the social integration income may also be covered by this measure, provided that they meet one of the following conditions:

Registration with the employment services for at least 12 months;
Members of single-parent families or the respective spouses or persons with whom they live in a de facto relationship are also unemployed; Victims of domestic violence;
Beneficiaries of a temporary protection measure or refugees.

Unemployed persons who are in one of the following situations are considered a priority:

Persons with disabilities and incapacities;
Long-term unemployed persons;
Persons aged 45 or over;
Former prisoners or persons serving an open prison sentence or another non-custodial judicial measure;
Victims of domestic violence.
How to apply?

Applications are submitted electronically by the promoting entities on the iefponline portal. For further information on this subject, click on the following links: Iefponline - Contrato Emprego - Inserção e Iefponline - Contrato Emprego - Inserção+

Responsible entity

IEFP – Instituto do Emprego e Formação Profissional, I.P.

Reinforcement of the Parental Leave regime

What measures were created for the reinforcement of Parental Leaves?

With the aim of encouraging the sharing of parental leaves between the mother and the father, new rules were created to support parenting, which provide for a series of rights granted to workers after the birth or adoption of a child, namely the increase of parental allowances and of the initial parental leave granted to the father, as well as the creation of a new modality that allows both parents to reconcile part-time work with child care.

Increase of the parental leave period granted to the father:

If, previously, the father was entitled to 20 mandatory working days of leave, with the new rules, it is mandatory for the father to take a 28-day parental leave period, in consecutive or non-consecutive days. Of these 28 days, the first seven must be taken immediately after the childbirth. As for the remaining period, it must be taken within six weeks after the childbirth. The father also has the right to take an extended period of seven days (instead of the previously established five days), in consecutive or non-consecutive days, simultaneously with the mother.

Part-time parental leave:

Parents who choose to take their parental leave for more than 120 days (150 or 180 days) are now entitled to take a part-time leave. In other words, after the 120-day period, they may accumulate the remaining days of leave and combine them with part-time work, provided that both parents opt for this modality.

This part-time leave must always be the last period taken by the parents and, as it represents half of the full-time period, it may be extended to a maximum of 90 days for each parent.

180-day parental leave:

In what concerns 180-day parental leaves (150 + 30), the value of the parental allowance increases from 83% to 90%, provided that the father takes, exclusively, a period of 60 consecutive days or two periods of 30 days.

Extended parental leave:

Parents may choose to extend the initial parental leave (of 120, 150 or 180 days) for another 90 days. If, previously, the extended parental allowance corresponded to 25% of the remuneration, currently it corresponds to 40% of the remuneration, whenever there is effective sharing of parental responsibilities. Otherwise, this increase does not apply.

Part-time work after the parental leave:

Parents who choose to work on a part-time basis after taking a 120-day parental leave are currently entitled to an allowance corresponding to 20% of the respective remuneration. This support is granted in addition to the salary paid by the company for the part-time work.

Who is entitled?
- The Father and the Mother, after the birth or adoption of a child;
- The Father and the Mother, after the adoption of a child;
- Host families.

New rules applied to child adoption and host families:

Parents who want to adopt a child are entitled to the same rights and conditions provided for in the parental leave granted exclusively to the father, as long as the child is aged under 15. Both the adopters can take up to 30 days of leave (maximum), simultaneously, during the transition and monitoring periods of the adoption process.

Host families may also benefit from 30 days of leave, provided that each person responsible for the foster child takes, exclusively, a period of 30 consecutive days or two periods of 15 consecutive days.

How to apply?

Your application may be submitted online, through the Social Security Online Service, in person, at a Social Security Customer Information Service or sent by mail to the Social Security District Centre of your residence area.

Responsible entity

ISS, IP – Instituto de Segurança Social, IP

Sustainable Employment Commitment

What is it?

It is an exceptional and transitional measure consisting of the granting of financial support to employers that hire, under an open-ended contract, unemployed persons registered with the Institute for Employment and Vocational Training, P.I., this support is combined with financial support for the payment of social security contributions during the first year of the employment contracts covered by this measure.

Who is entitled?

All employers that hire unemployed persons registered with the Institute for Employment and Vocational Training, P.I. for at least 3 consecutive months or who, regardless of the registration time, meet one of the following conditions:

Persons aged 35 or under;
Persons aged 45 or over;
Beneficiaries of Unemployment Benefits;
Beneficiaries of the Social Integration Income;
Persons with disabilities and incapacities;
Members of a single-parent family;
Persons whose spouses or persons with whom they live in a de facto relationship are also unemployed and registered with the IEFP;
Persons to whom a residential care promotion and protection measure has been applied;
Victims of domestic violence;

Refugees or beneficiaries of a temporary protection measure;
Former prisoners and persons who are serving or have served non-custodial sentences or judicial measures and are in a position to enter into working life;
Drug addicts or alcoholics undergoing recovery;
Persons who do not have Social Security records as employees or self-employed persons in the last 12 consecutive months preceding the date of registration of the job offer;
Persons who have provided effective service in the Armed Forces under an Employment Contract, a Special Employment Contract or as Volunteers and who meet the conditions set out in paragraph 2 of article 22 of Decree-Law no. 76/2018 of 11 October;
Homeless people or those in the process of social integration covered by a Social response defined for this purpose;
Persons who have been recognized as Informal Carers and who have provided care as primary informal carers;
Persons who have completed a professional traineeship financed by the IEFP less than 12 months ago;
Beneficiaries of the Inland Employment Plus measure.

How to apply?

Applications are submitted electronically by the employers on the iefponline Portal.

Responsible entity

IEFP – Instituto do Emprego e Formação Profissional, I.P.