What is contractual overtime?
Your employment contract defines the number of hours you are required to work per week.
If you work more than the hours stipulated in your contract, up to a maximum of:
45 hours per week for the industrial sector, office staff, technical employees, sales staff in large retail companies, or
50 hours for all other sectors,
Under what conditions?
If your employer asks you to work contractual overtime, or if you want to work the extra hours, the following conditions must be respected:
The overtime must really be necessary
The extra hours do not require an unreasonable physical or mental effort
How is contractual overtime remunerated?
If you work contractual overtime, you must be paid 25% more than your normal hourly rate
However, with your consent and subject to a written agreement between you and your employer, you may waive the 25% supplement and redeem the extra hours in time as paid leave
Managers are generally not entitled to the 25% supplement for contractual overtime unless otherwise stated in their employment contract. Managers also have the option to agree in writing to redeem any contractual overtime without a 25% supplement or with a supplement of less than 25%.
What is statutory overtime?
The law provides for a maximum number of working hours per week:
45 hours per week for the industrial sector, office staff, technical employees, sales staff in large retail companies, or
50 hours for all other sectors.
If you work more than the statutory maximum hours, you are doing statutory overtime.
Under what conditions?
Statutory overtime is permitted if the following conditions are met:
It is a case of urgency or there has been an extraordinary increase in work;
The work is needed to complete an inventory, finish accounts or carry out a liquidation; or
The work is needed prevent or address an operational problem.
You may not work more than two hours statutory overtime per day.
You may not work more than 170 hours statutory overtime (45 hours per week) or 140 hours (50 per week) per year.
How is statutory overtime remunerated?
Statutory overtime is also compensated with a wage supplement of at least 25%. If you agree to forgo the 25% supplement, you can redeem the overtime as paid leave within 14 weeks or within a period agreed with your employer (maximum 12 months),
For office staff and other categories of workers, the wage supplement does not apply for the first 60 hours of overtime.
If you are under 18, you may not work longer hours than the other employees in the same company. And under no circumstances may your daily working time exceed nine hours not including breaks, or time spent at work exceed twelve hours including breaks.
Time spent at vocational school counts as working time.
For more information, check the list of FAQs and answers (webpage available in German, French and Italian) on the website of the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs.