Working Hours

Ordinary

Ordinary or conventional working hours are those which are agreed upon by the parties (employer and employee). This agreement may not be for more than 48 hours per week, according to the articles 158 and 161 of the CST (Substantive Labor Code).

The employee may work on consecutive shifts every day of the week, as long as the respective shift does not exceed 6 hours per day and 36 hours per week. In this case, the night charge does not apply, nor does Sunday or holiday work. However, the employee earns the salary corresponding to the respective working hours, the legal or agreed-upon minimum must be respected and the employee has the right to one day of remunerated rest.

The above rules do not apply for:

Summary of flexible work days (CST, art. 161)

Summary of 36-hour-per-week working hours (CST, art. 161)

For companies adhering to working hours of 48 hours per week, the ordinary working hours may be expanded by 2 hours per day if agreed by both parties. The sole purpose of this is to allow the employee to rest for the whole Saturday. When the working hours are expanded in this way, overtime is not allowed.

Night and day shifts

This distinction applies to the compensation of legal charges such as overtime and night work.

Overtime

This represents situations in which the ordinary working hours are exceeded as well as every case in which the maximum working hours are exceeded.

Overtime cannot be greater than 2 hours per day and 12 hours per week.

Remunerated Sunday rest

The remunerated Sunday rest follows the rules below:

Granting remunerated Sunday rest to the employee is mandatory whenever the employee has worked all business days of the week agreed upon or, if any was missed, there has been an appropriate justification. Appropriate justification means accidents, illness, household calamities beyond the employee's ability to prevent, or by blame or opposition of the employer.

The Sunday rest minimum duration is 24 hours.

For rest remuneration purposes, holidays do not break continuity and are accounted as if the employee had worked normally.

Employees who have support or indemnity for illness or work accidents to receive in cash are not entitled to Sunday rest remuneration.

When a holiday is on Sunday, the employee is not entitled to double payment.

When not all days of the week are worked, the payment is proportional to the time actually worked.

For employees with fixed balance, this means that the payment of pauses and holidays (weekly, every 15 days or monthly) is incorporated. For the others, such as daily-paid workers or those with variable earnings or commission, the payment is based on the average of the immediately preceding week.

Any day of the week may be considered as Sunday rest for those employees who follow flexible working hours.

Charges Calculation -> exceptional

These are the values paid to employees who work overtime or on the night shift, according to the following table:

Example:

Salary: $480,000 per month

Transportation subsidy: $ 55,000

Working hours: 8 hours per day (Monday to Saturday)

Hourly Salary: $ 480,000 / 30 / 8 = $ 2,000.00

In August, the employee worked:

Day 4: 10 hour, 2 being day-shift overtime.

Day 5: 9 hours, one being night-shift overtime.

Day 6: 8 hours, one having night-shift bonus.

Day 7: 8 hours, 8 being on Sunday/holiday and one being Sunday/holiday night-shift bonus.

Day 8 : 10 hours, 8 being on Sunday/holiday, one being Sunday/holiday day-shift overtime and one being Sunday/holiday night-shift overtime.

The night-shift overtime hours calculation is:

In the ordinary payroll calculation we would have:

For employees working on Sunday, the Sunday value must be paid, except for employees with special working hours (6 hours/day or 36 hours/week).

For employees who work on two Sundays in a month, the employee may elect whether to compensate on another day or receive in cash. When more than two Sundays, it is mandatory to use the compensation average.

See also