Night work in Portugal: the 10-hour rule and the extra pay, in practical examples

This article explains the Portuguese rules — Decree-Law 84/2026 (Decreto-Lei n.º 84/2026) and the collective agreement for goods transport in Portugal — and matters to anyone who drives for a Portuguese company. There are two different “nights” in a driver’s life in Portugal, and mixing them up is the most common mistake. One limits your working hours. The other affects your pay. They start and end at different times.

Purpose	Hours that count	What changes
Working hours limit	00:00 to 05:00	Maximum of 10 hours of work that day
Pay (goods transport)	20:00 to 07:00	Monthly allowance or 25% extra per hour

The 10-hour rule

It is set out in Article 22 of Decree-Law 84/2026, in force since 12 July, which replaced Decree-Law 237/2007 (Decreto-Lei n.º 237/2007). If work falls, wholly or partly, between midnight and 05:00, the driver may not do more than 10 hours of work in that 24-hour period.

• The 24 hours are counted from the start of the working day, after the daily or weekly rest period. The collective agreement says the same in clause 21.
• One minute between 00:00 and 05:00 is enough. Starting at 04:50 already makes it a night-work day.
• Overtime also counts towards the 10 hours.

What counts towards the 10 hours

All working time counts (Article 3(ff)): driving, loading and unloading, checks, refuelling, cleaning, paperwork, customs and police. Waiting at the loading bay also counts when nobody tells you how long it will last.

Breaks, rest and periods of availability do not count (Articles 20 and 22(2)). A period of availability is a wait whose length the driver knows before it starts, such as a booked unloading time. The law also includes ferry and train crossings and waiting at borders. In multi-manning, time spent sitting next to the driver, or in the bunk while the lorry is moving, is also availability.

Example 1 — Starting at 04:00: a night-work day

The driver starts at 04:00. Only one hour of work falls before 05:00, but that is enough: the day is limited to 10 hours of work.

Time	Activity	Work
04:00–04:30	Checks and coupling	0h30
04:30–09:00	Driving	4h30
09:00–09:45	Break	—
09:45–12:00	Driving	2h15
12:00–13:00	Unloading	1h00
13:00–13:30	Break	—
13:30–15:15	Driving	1h45
	Total	10h00

At 15:15 the driver reaches 10 hours. Driving (8h30) is still below the 9 hours allowed by Regulation (EC) No 561/2006, but that no longer matters: the limit that applies on this day is 10 hours of work. If the driver is asked to do one more one-hour load, the total goes to 11h00 — and 11 hours is already a serious offence.

Example 2 — The same job, starting at 05:00

Exactly the same day, one hour later: from 05:00 to 16:15. Now there is no work between midnight and 05:00, so the 10-hour rule does not apply. The driving limits of Regulation 561/2006, the breaks and the 60-hour weekly limit still apply.

Watch your pay: for pay purposes, the first two hours (05:00–07:00) are still night work, because under the collective agreement the night runs from 20:00 to 07:00. Starting one hour later changes the limit, but not what you are paid.

Example 3 — Night shift, 21:00 to 07:45

Time	Activity	Work
21:00–22:00	Loading	1h00
22:00–02:30	Driving	4h30
02:30–03:15	Break	—
03:15–06:45	Driving	3h30
06:45–07:45	Unloading	1h00
	Total	10h00

Ten hours of work, eight of driving: compliant. For pay, 9h15 of this work falls between 20:00 and 07:00 (everything except the last 45 minutes of unloading).

Example 4 — The same wait, two different totals

The driver starts at 03:00. Driving, unloading and checks add up to 8 hours of work. Along the way, the driver waits 3 hours at the customer.

	What the driver was told on arrival	The wait is…	Day total
Case A	“We’ll unload you at 10:00”	availability	8h00 — compliant
Case B	“Wait there, we’ll call you”	working time	11h00 — serious

The wait is the same. What changes is knowing, before it starts, how long it will last. The tachograph record must match what actually happened: recording a wait with no set time as availability hides hours of work.

Example 5 — Nine hours of driving at night

On a night-work day, a driver who drives 9 hours has one hour left for everything else: checks, refuelling, loading and unloading. The 10 hours of driving that Regulation 561/2006 allows twice a week only fit into a night-work day if there is no other work at all — not even the walk-round check of the lorry. In practice, they don’t fit.

How much extra you get paid

In goods transport, the ANTRAM/ANTP–FECTRANS collective agreement applies, as revised in Labour and Employment Bulletin No 9/2026 (Boletim do Trabalho e Emprego n.º 9/2026). Since 3 August, Extension Order No 316/2026/1 (Portaria de extensão n.º 316/2026/1) has applied it to all goods hauliers in mainland Portugal, whether they belong to an employers’ association or not. Drivers who are members of SIMM, SNMOT, SIMMPER and STRUN are excluded, as they have their own agreements.

• For pay, the night runs from 20:00 to 07:00 (clause 25).
• Iberian and international: a mandatory night work allowance of at least 10% of base salary, paid 13 times a year (clause 63). With the minimum base salary for HGV drivers (€1,014.02), that is €101.40 a month. The allowance replaces hour-by-hour payment.
• National: as a rule, the same allowance of at least 10% (clause 62(1)). It is only not due if the contract, or a later written agreement, says the work is mainly during the day. In that case, each hour between 20:00 and 07:00 is paid at 25% extra (clauses 48 and 62(2)).
• Older contracts, signed before this rule, keep the pay arrangement they already had, until the way of working changes (clause 62(3)).

What a night hour is worth under the 25% arrangement. The hourly rate is calculated as follows (clause 49): (base salary + salary supplement + seniority payments) × 12 ÷ (40 × 52). Example: a national driver in a 7.5 to 44 t lorry, on the minimum base salary (€1,014.02), with a €20.28 supplement and no seniority payments. The hour is worth €5.97. Each night hour pays €1.49 extra.

• In Example 2, the two hours between 05:00 and 07:00 add €2.98.
• In Example 3, the 9h15 of night work add €13.80.

In passenger transport and other sectors, their own collective agreement applies. Without a collective agreement, the Labour Code (Código do Trabalho) counts 22:00 to 07:00 as night and pays 25% extra (Articles 223 and 266). The 10-hour rule is the same for all drivers, goods or passenger.

Fines

Exceeding 10 hours on a night-work day is an administrative offence (Article 22(4)):

Work on the night-work day	Severity
More than 10h and less than 11h	Minor
From 11h to less than 13h	Serious
13h or more	Very serious

The company is liable (Article 36), with Labour Code fines that increase with turnover. Working time is enforced by the ACT, Portugal’s labour inspectorate. The law allows a collective agreement to set aside the 10 hours for technical or organisational reasons (Article 22(3)), but the goods transport agreement does not: it repeats the 10-hour limit.

Before you set off at night

• Working between 00:00 and 05:00? Then the day has 10 hours of work, no more.
• Add up everything that is work, not just the driving.
• Ask for the unloading time. A wait with a set time is availability; a wait with no set time is work.
• Check your payslip to see whether you get the night work allowance or the 25% per hour.

The driving hours calculator already shows whether the day counts as night work and warns you when carrying on past midnight would make it so. For the difference between working time and driving time, see also Working time is not driving time.

To work out a specific day, use the night work calculator.