I have something to say about that. I live in Portugal as a foreigner and the working hours mean nothing. People are making coffee breaks all day long and the amount of sloppiness and incompetence can often be mind-boggling. As an example, my German girlfriend works in a dental laboratory and her Portuguese colleague would not possibly understand why it's not common practice in a German laboratory to watch Youtube videos on your cell phone while working. He really, honestly didn't believe it when she told him that German bosses don't appreciate that.

To be fair, salaries in Portugal are ridiculous, I have no idea how people get along with 600 Euro/m, 800 Euro/m tops, when at least in Lisbon rents are high. Some hard working people seem to literally live off toasted bread and coffee. This is disguised by the average salary of 1000 Euro/m after taxes, because the gap between rich and poor is very high.

I myself work at university, and I can attest that what takes 1 day at maximum anywhere in Northern Europe is projected to take 1-3 weeks here. I have a colleague who surfs on the Net the whole day and gets paid for it -- again, extremely bad payment, though.

So no, mere presence does not count and work hours don't count either. For Portugal, I blame the bosses, though, who seem to be universally incompetent assholes and reliably manage to create a catastrophic working atmosphere.

Sorry if I've offended some Portuguese, but that's my impression of the work ethics here after nearly a decade of living here. It has its advantages but productivity is not one of them.