The Constitutional Court, according to its ruling of May 18, 2021, declared the unconstitutionality with general binding force, due to violation of the principle of equality, of the rule that established the extension of the trial period to 180 days, insofar as it concerns workers seeking their first job, when applicable to workers who have previously been hired, with a fixed-term contract, for a period of 90 days or more, by other employers, specifically article 112, no. 1, paragraph b) iii) of the Labor Code, as amended by Law no. 93/2019 of September 4.
This rule provides that the trial period in the open-ended or indefinite-term contract lasts 180 days for first-time job seekers and long-term unemployed workers. A group of thirty-five deputies of the Portuguese Parliament requested the Constitutional Court to analyze and declare the unconstitutionality of this norm with general mandatory force.
Despite considering that the existence of a trial period does not merit constitutional censure, the Constitutional Court concluded that the doubling of the period, by compressing the right to employment stability, substantially affects the right to job security, and is disproportionate to the precariousness caused.
As such, only part of the rule was declared unconstitutional, affecting only first-time job seekers who had previously been employed on a fixed-term contract for a period of 90 days or more. The 180-day trial period is therefore valid for the long-term unemployed, first-time job seekers who have never been employed on a fixed-term basis or who, having been employed on a fixed-term basis, have been employed for less than 90 days.
It should be stressed that the extension of the trial period from 90 to 180 days for first-time job seekers and the long-term unemployed was not considered unconstitutional because it was not found to violate the principles of proportionality and equality.
03/03/2022