Employment
Lei Geral do Trabalho 1986 with a 45-hour week
The Lei Geral do Trabalho of 1986 remains the framework statute, setting a 45-hour week and providing for written contracts. Enforcement capacity is very limited and most employment is informal, concentrated in cashew production.
Key rules
- Jurisdiction — The Inspecção-Geral do Trabalho supervises; Tribunais Regionais hear labour claims.
- Deadline — Notice on termination: by category under the Lei Geral do Trabalho
- Deadline — Labour claim: to the Tribunal Regional labour section
Governing law
- Lei Geral do TrabalhoLei n° 2/86
- Decreto-Lei sobre salário mínimo nacional
In practice
Guinea-Bissau's labour statute predates both OHADA accession and the multiparty constitution, and has not been comprehensively replaced. Because the cashew crop dominates export earnings and is produced largely by smallholders and seasonal labour, the formal employment code governs a small fraction of the workforce, and minimum wage revision is a recurring but often unimplemented commitment.