Banco de Portugal ordered to pay 30 thousand euros to former worker

He was 34 years old in 1989 and had been an administrator at Banco de Portugal for four years when he applied to an internal competition to work as a monitor at the Money Museum, which the central bank planned to open the following year.

The worker requested authorization to participate in colloquiums and seminars, but had his requests successively refused. While the museum did not formally exist, he attended some temporary exhibitions, but his daily professional life was marked by tasks that he describes as “residual” or even “non-existent“.

According to , this appears in the judicial decisions handed down in the context of the action brought by Antonio Vitorino against Banco de Portugal, a process that culminated in the institution being sentenced to compensation of 30 thousand euros for non-pecuniary damage.

Meanwhile retired, the worker claimed compensation for 40 thousand euros. However, the Almada court set the compensation at 30 thousand euros, considering the case law in similar cases. The request for professional reclassification, as well as the challenge to performance evaluations that he considered inadequate, were not accepted.

In the first instance ruling, the court concluded that, between 1989 and 1999, the Bank of Portugal kept the worker “emptied of functions”, despite the fact that he was hired to perform functions linked to a museum that, during that period, did not exist.

During these years, Antonio Vitorino also served on the workers’ committee. Only in 2000, after the end of one of his terms on the commission, did he actually begin to perform the functions for which he had been hired.

Later, when Banco de Portugal began work on preparing a new museum space, the worker was not integrated into the project, despite the responsibilities he held in the area.

According to the process, he only became aware of the initiative when he was called to resolve a fault with a monitor. In 2011, he sent correspondence to the institution requesting its involvement in the development of the new museum.

The current Money Museum would open to the public in 2016. Even so, the Almada court pointed out that the worker demonstrated “little flexibility in taking on tasks” that went beyond those strictly provided for in their professional category and adopted a “formalism in the relationship with the defendant”, noting that his “constant and inflexible demands” could contribute to the deterioration of the employment relationship.

Although no discriminatory treatment towards colleagues was demonstrated, the court considered that “this does not mean that the author has not been a victim of harassment, particularly due to the indifference to which he has been shown since the beginning of his hiring”. The court criticized the bank for not having done anything to prevent that situation from continuing “indefinitely”.

In November 2025, the Lisbon Court of Appeal confirmed the decision of the first instance, maintaining the compensation of 30 thousand euros and rejecting the request for professional reclassification, as it understood that the worker was not harmed in the performance evaluations.

Contacted by Público, the worker, retired since August 2025, preferred not to make statements.