Work Hours and Overtime Work
Legal Nuggets
- Section 13 of the Labour Act provides that normal hours of work of any undertaking shall be fixed by: (a) mutual agreement; (b) collective bargaining within the organisation or industry concerned; (c) by an industrial wages board (established by or under an enactment providing for the establishment of such boards) where there is no machinery for collective bargaining.
- Hours which a worker is required to work in excess of the normal hours fixed either by mutual agreement between the employer and the employee or by Collective Agreement constitutes overtime. Section 13(2) of the Labour Act provides that a ‘worker’ should be compensated by means of time off from work if he works overtime, or in lieu, he should be paid overtime wages.
- In relation to work on weekends or declared public holidays, as we are aware, the Labour Act contemplates a rest day comprising of at least 24 consecutive hours in every 7-day period of work; this, often times fall on a weekend i.e. Saturday or Sunday. Accordingly, Sundays and Public holidays are typically work free days and an employee cannot be compelled to work on these days. Generally, however, Saturday is not a work free day.
- Exigencies of business may sometimes require an employee to work on a weekend or on a public holiday so long as it is mutually agreed upon by the parties. Employees are usually entitled to be remunerated when they work on work free days except the contrary is agreed between the parties.