Between postponed meetings, full schedules and the recurring habit of postponing rest until later, many workers reached April without realizing that the legal vacation calendar is not infinite. The topic rarely appears in everyday conversations, but it has real consequences: the vacation days for 2025 that remain to be taken have a deadline that ends at the end of this month. After that, the right may disappear without further notice.
This warning was recently highlighted by , which drew attention to a detail of the law often ignored at this stage of the year. The publication reminds us that, despite some flexibility provided for in the legislation, time to use these days is running out.
A deadline that is not just formal
According to the Working Conditions Authority, the general rule is clear: vacations must be taken in the year in which they expire. The law allows, however, one exception. When this does not happen, unused days can be used the following year as long as they are used by April 30th.
This regime applies to the minimum 22 working days of annual leave provided for in the Labor Code. In practice, a worker who, for example, only took part of his vacation in 2025 can use the remaining days in 2026, accumulating them with the days expired on January 1st of this year, as long as there is an agreement with the employer.
According to the same source, this possibility is not unlimited. Accumulation is, as a rule, limited to a single year. Older vacations, such as days not taken in 2024, tend to be lost, as legislation does not allow the successive transition of vacation periods without specific framework.
What counts as a working day of vacation
For legal purposes, business days are those that run from Monday to Friday, excluding holidays. The ACT also clarifies that, when the worker’s normal rest days coincide with working days, these can be replaced by non-holiday Saturdays or Sundays when calculating vacations, ensuring that the rest period is not shortened.
The right to vacation applies to all companies, regardless of size, but its implementation is subject to rules that are not always fully known or remembered by workers.
Regime in the year of admission
In the year you join a company, vacation calculations follow different criteria. The worker is entitled to two working days of vacation for each complete month of the contract, up to a limit of 20 days, and can only take this period after six complete months of work.
If the calendar year ends before this deadline is met, the vacation can be used until June 30 of the following year. Even so, even in these situations, the law imposes a maximum limit of 30 working days of vacation per calendar year, unless a more favorable provision is made in a collective regulatory instrument.
Who decides and on what dates
The scheduling of vacations should, preferably, result from an agreement between worker and employer. In the absence of understanding, it is up to the employer to set the period, listening to the workers’ representative structures whenever they exist.
As a rule, holidays must be scheduled between May 1st and October 31st. Outside this range, they can only be set on other dates if there is a legal or contractual framework. In the tourism sector, legislation also imposes specific rules regarding the consecutive enjoyment of part of the vacation period.
The deadline ends on April 30, highlights Notícias ao Minuto, resuming information already released by the Working Conditions Authority. Once this limit has expired, vacation days relating to 2025 that have not been taken can no longer be used under the legal regime provided for, except for exceptions provided for in collective labor regulation instruments.
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