“One-off tolerance is granted to workers who perform public functions in the services of the direct administration of the State, whether central or decentralised, and in public institutes on the next 23 and 30 December 2022”, refers to the dispatch.

In this dispatch, the prime minister justifies the extra days by the fact that it is “traditional for many people to travel outside their places of residence during the Christmas and New Year period with a view to holding family reunions”.

António Costa then refers to “the practice that has been followed over the years” and “the existing tradition in the sense of granting time off, at this time, in non-essential public services”.

In relation to these two days of time off, in the diploma, it is noted that "except services and bodies that, for reasons of public interest, must remain in operation during that period, in terms to be defined by the competent member of the Government ”.