A normal working day lasts no more than eight hours, with a forty-hour work week. This duration of work is established by Article 100 of the Labor Code. However, there are exceptions in which the length of the working day can either increase or decrease.
Work time
The Labor Code provides a clear definition of working time and provides for various options. Working time is considered exactly the time when the employee works directly, performs exactly those actions that are assigned to him by the employment contract and job duties. This time does not include any breaks. In most cases, the length of the working time is set directly by the employer and complies with the law, amounting to no more than forty hours a week. These forty working hours are distributed differently throughout the week, depending on the so-called working hours. Such a regime is established by an employment contract or contract.
The main mode adopted for use is normal working hours. Under her, forty hours a week are divided into five working days of eight working hours. Other options for the distribution of hours of work are also possible. For example, in shift work, working hours are distributed so that the result is no more than the permissible weekly rate.
The law permits both increased working hours and reduced work, work in a flexible mode.
Reduced working hours apply to special categories of workers. These are minors, disabled people, people working in harmful or dangerous conditions.
Flexible work or flexible working hours - in this case, the beginning of work, its end or the total duration of the shift may change with the mutual consent of the employee and the employer. At the same time, the employee must still work the established number of hours of work per week.
Working hours can not only decrease, but also increase.
Irregular working hours
Irregular working hours, according to the Labor Code, is one of the working time regimes and is a form of work in which employees, if necessary, can be involved in work beyond the normal working hours. Such involvement can only be of an episodic nature and, in excess of the norm, such involvement to work is not paid, but, most often, it is compensated by additional leave.
If the labor contract for an employee establishes an irregular working day, this does not mean that the employee can be constantly recruited to work. Article 101 of the Labor Code speaks only of episodic recruitment to work, that is, such recruitment should in no case be permanent or even clear-cut periodic.
For employees with irregular working hours, there are also internal rules of the organization, where a specific time for starting and ending work is determined, this period of time is for all employees of the organization, without exception, the normal duration of work.
Other work performed in excess of the norm
There are other ways to get workers to work longer than the statutory eight hours.
One of them is work at night. If there is a production need, such work is possible. However, the total duration of work should not exceed forty hours per week. This can be achieved by providing additional rest time equal to the duration of the work. when this condition is met, no extra hours will be generated.
It should be borne in mind that night work should be reduced by one hour.
Overtime work - this is how in everyday life they call work in excess of the normal duration of working hours, which is performed at the will of the organization or the entrepreneur, that is, the employer.
All cases in which it is possible to assign such work to an employee are clearly indicated in the law. The employer cannot independently change or supplement the list. But, if there is a written consent of the employee to perform overtime work, it is possible to engage in it with a subsequent payment in a larger amount.
