A study published for Equality Week by the Commission for Equality between Women and Men of the CGTP finds 41% of working women in Portugal do shift, night or weekend work and warns working hours are highly deregulated. The study frames long and irregular hours as a gendered labour issue with implications for work–life balance and equality measures. Workers, employers and those negotiating contracts should note the prevalence of atypical hours in female employment sectors.
Study: 41% of women do shift, night or weekend work
Sunday, 22 February 2026AI summary
Context & Explainers
The CGTP study is a report published by the General Confederation of Portuguese Workers (Confederação Geral dos Trabalhadores Portugueses), Portugal's largest trade-union centre. Such studies typically analyse pay, working conditions and public-sector cuts and are used by unions to justify strike actions and policy demands.
The Commission for Equality between Women and Men (Comissão para a Igualdade entre Mulheres e Homens) is a public body that monitors gender equality, investigates discrimination and advises government and institutions in Portugal. It produces studies and campaigns (for example around Equality Week and International Women’s Day) that influence workplace rules and inform workers and employers about issues like long or deregulated working hours.
A banked hours scheme (commonly called banco de horas in Portuguese) lets employees store overtime or unused hours and use them later as paid time off instead of receiving immediate extra pay. The CGTP (Confederação Geral dos Trabalhadores Portugueses) proposal in its labour-review document would extend flexible working and the option to bank hours to parents with children up to 16, giving them more ability to adjust work time around family needs while hours are formally tracked.
The General Confederation of the Portuguese Workers (CGTP – Confederação Geral dos Trabalhadores Portugueses) is Portugal’s largest trade-union confederation, grouping most unions in manufacturing, public services and many other sectors.
Founded clandestinely in 1970 as “Intersindical” under the dictatorship, it emerged publicly after the 1974 Carnation Revolution and was legalised in 1975. It has been central to virtually all major labour struggles since then, from defending collective bargaining and the 40‑hour week to leading general strikes against austerity and labour‑law rollbacks.
CGTP is historically close to the Portuguese Communist Party and has a class‑struggle, anti‑neoliberal profile, strongly critical of EU and government policies seen as undermining workers’ rights. It favours grassroots mobilisation and strikes over compromise, often refusing national social‑pact deals that the more centrist UGT is willing to sign.
In today’s Portugal, CGTP remains a key actor in wage bargaining, labour‑law debates and national protests; together with UGT it called the first joint general strike in years in December 2025, signalling its continuing capacity to organise mass action.
