Working time

The Organisation of Working Time Regulations set out minimum requirements for the organisation of working time that generally apply to all sectors of activity, both public and private, subject to any special requirements that may be prescribed to particular sectors by virtue of specific sectoral regulation orders or any other applicable law.

Collective agreements or other agreements entered into between employers and employees may also set out more favourable provisions regulating working time, for the ultimate protection of the health and safety of employees.

Statutory minimum requirements relating to working time include minimum periods of daily rest, breaks, weekly rest and annual leave, maximum weekly working time, certain aspects of night work, shift work and patterns of work, as further outlined below.

Weekly working time

As a general rule, the average working time for each seven-day period of a worker, including overtime, may not exceed forty-eight hours.

An employer may not force an employee to work more than forty-eight hours over a seven-day period, unless the employer has first obtained the employee’s agreement to perform such work. Such an agreement may be withdrawn by the employee by giving no less than seven days and no more than three months’ written notice to the employer, that may be stipulated in the said written agreement.

A night worker’s normal hours of work may not exceed an average of eight hours in any twenty-four-hour period. In such cases, an employer must ensure that the worker undergoes a suitable health assessment to determine whether he is healthy enough for the proposed work. This must be carried out prior to assigning night work to a worker and at regular intervals thereafter or whenever there is a change in the working environment or in the health of the worker.

Special rules apply to shift workers, mobile workers and offshore workers. Collective agreements may also modify the minimum requirements that are set out in the Organisation of Working Time Regulations. Moreover, sectoral regulation orders may prescribe special requirements for certain sectors of industry.

Overtime

Overtime refers to any hours of work that an employee works in excess of their normal hours of work.

An employer may require their full-time employees to work any overtime, as long as the average weekly working time (including overtime) does not exceed an average of forty-eight hours. An employee may, however, give his written consent to work more than a weekly average of forty-eight hours.

An employee whose overtime rate is not covered by a specific sectoral regulation order must be paid one and a half times the normal rate for work carried out in excess of a forty-hour week, averaged over a four-week period or over the shift cycle at the discretion of the employer.

Rest period and breaks

From one working day to another, every worker is entitled to a minimum daily rest period of eleven consecutive hours for each twenty-four-hour period during which the worker performs work for his employer. This means that an employee cannot be made to work more than thirteen hours in a twenty-four-hour period.

In addition to the eleven-hour daily rest entitlement, every worker is entitled to one day off per week, i.e. an uninterrupted weekly rest period of twenty-four hours, for each seven-day period during which the worker works for the employer.

Alternatively, one may be entitled to one period of forty-eight consecutive hours within a fourteen-day period, or two periods of twenty-four consecutive hours each within a fourteen-day period.

No rest period can be substituted by monetary compensation save exceptional circumstances prescribed by the law, provided that equivalent compensatory rest periods are given to the worker soon after.

Where the working day is longer than six hours, a worker is entitled to a minimum rest break for an uninterrupted period of not less than fifteen minutes, which the worker is entitled to spend away from his workstation if he has one. Such rest break is not considered as working time.

Sectoral regulation orders may prescribe special requirements relating to rest and break periods for certain sectors of industry.

Banking Hours

An employer may introduce a scheme to bank hours, whereby up to three hundred and seventy-six hours of the normal annual working hours in each calendar year may be banked, thus allowing extra hours over and above the normal weekly working hours to be worked by an employee during periods of higher work activity which would be redeemed during periods of lower activity by having working hours below the normal weekly working hours.

The average weekly working time (including overtime) may not, however, exceed an average of forty-eight hours over the applicable reference period in terms of the Organization of Working Time Regulations, unless the employee concerned has given his consent in writing to work more than a weekly average of forty-eight hours.

The hours of work that may be banked must be limited to those hours on any day in a week which attract the normal hourly rate of payment. Similarly, any hours of work which have been banked in order to be utilised during weeks of lower work activity, may only be so utilized on a weekly day of work where the hours of work are paid at a normal rate. Moreover, the employer and its employees may also agree to include hours which attract a special rate of pay and in this respect, the hours to be banked must reflect such special hourly rate of pay.

Part-time and full-time employees with reduced hours may not be forced to participate in a scheme to bank hours, and must not suffer any detriment by the employer for failing to agree to participate in such a scheme.

Any scheme for the banking of hours would need to comply with certain prescribed requirements, and requires the prior approval of the Department for Industrial and Employment Relations (or DIER), which may impose any conditions deemed necessary for the implementation of such scheme.