Glossary

ACT

Published 30 October 2026, 20:39
ACT — Autoridade para as Condições do Trabalho (the labour inspectorate)

The body that inspects private employers: contracts, pay, working hours, health and safety. The worker can complain, and so can a colleague or anyone else; questions are submitted and appointments booked through the public services portal.

Where you come across it. You are not given a contract, wages are paid late, a job as an employee is dressed up as self-employed service provision, a pregnant woman is dismissed.
The inspectorate makes the employer put the working relationship on a proper footing, but it does not recover your money: for that you go to the labour court.