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Portugal Decreto-Lei n.º 243/86 — Temperature & Humidity Comfort Rule — Heat Stress Control Measures

Decreto-Lei n.º 243/86's annexed Regulamento Geral (Art. 11.º) states that workplace temperature should, as far as possible ('na medida do possível'), range between 18°C and 22°C, extending to 25°C under certain climatic conditions, and that workplace humidity should range between 50% and 70%. This is an aspirational comfort duty, not a strict occupational heat-stress limit, and it applies only to the indoor commercial/office/services workplaces the Regulamento covers.

Open Portugal Decreto-Lei n.º 243/86 — Temperature & Humidity Comfort Rule in the interactive Guidance Wiki →

Authority
Ministério do Trabalho e Segurança Social (Ministry of Labour and Social Security), Portugal
Jurisdiction
Portugal
Legal status
Regulation
Rule type
Control Overlay
Standard ID
HGC-112

Governing formula

No standalone formula is published for this standard; see programmable logic and parameters below.

Control measures

Governing metric: Indoor workplace dry-bulb air temperature (°C) and relative humidity (%) — an indoor thermal-comfort overlay, not an outdoor/occupational heat-stress trigger.

ParameterValue
workplaceTempMinC18
workplaceTempMaxC22
workplaceTempExceptionalMaxC25
workplaceHumidityMinPct50
workplaceHumidityMaxPct70

Three things this engine deliberately does not do. (1) It does not treat 22-25°C as a breach: Art. 11.º, alínea a) states the 25°C extension itself ('salvo em determinadas condições climatéricas, em que poderá atingir os 25°C'), so this calculator has no basis to flag a reading the law's own text permits, and no caller-supplied 'certain climatic conditions' input was authorized for this engine to gate it further. (2) It does not gate on industry/sector, even though Art. 2.º, alínea c) excludes workplaces already covered by separate industry/mining/transport/agriculture safety legislation (construction included, by reasonable domain inference rather than verbatim Art. 2 text) — no `industry` input is declared in requiredInputs/optionalInputs for this engine, so the scope caveat is reported in prose only, never computed. (3) It does not invent a numeric trigger for Art. 13.º's 'temperaturas muito altas' break/reduced-hours duty, which the primary text leaves undefined. Also not encoded: the ACT guidance page (HTTP 503, not independently re-verified) and Projeto de Lei n.º 871/XV/1.ª (proposed_rule, not in force).

Programmable logic: Hidden entirely when `outdoor` is true, because Art. 11.º's numeric band is stated for indoor 'locais de trabalho' and outdoor-exposed work is covered only by Art. 12.º §3-4's non-numeric duty to shelter workers from bad weather and excessive sun — no temperature or humidity figure is stated for it, so nothing is computed for outdoor work. With neither indoorTempC nor relativeHumidity supplied there is nothing to compare against and the engine returns no result rather than blocking on a required input. Below 18°C: belowRecommendedMinimum. Between 22°C and 25°C inclusive: withinExceptionalRange — Art. 11.º, alínea a) itself states this extension for certain climatic conditions, so it is reported as informational, not a breach. Above 25°C: exceptionalMaximumExceeded. Relative humidity outside 50-70% is flagged independently and does not gate the temperature flags or vice versa. No work/rest minutes and no stop-work are produced — the Regulamento states neither.

Inputs

Required inputs: none

Optional inputs: indoorTempC, relativeHumidity, outdoor

Sources

Update history

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