Who is covered by the legal strictures on working time?

The rules detailed below apply in principle to all employees working in the public and private sectors of the economy as well as to persons working in vocational training, provided that they do not have other more favourable legal or contractual provisions.

However, the following are excluded from the scope of application of these rules:

• family businesses, where only the employer’s ascending relatives, descendants, brothers and sisters or relatives in the same degree (parents-in-law, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law) are employed;
• inland waterway transport companies;
• fairground companies;
• persons who are travellers and sales representatives and who work outside the company;
• persons who hold an effective management position in the company;
• persons who are senior managers whose presence in the enterprise is essential for its operation and supervision;
• persons who work from home.

This means that the limits on working hours do not apply to these people, that they are not entitled to the additional compensation payable for overtime, etc.

It should also be noted that the Labour Code provides that working time is to be regulated by a special law or by the social partners via a collective labour agreement for the following persons:

• domestic staff (i.e. household work in private homes, excluding all work of the same nature performed in hotels, restaurants, pubs, hospitals and children’s homes);
• personnel employed in family-type enterprises in agriculture, viticulture and horticulture;
• personnel employed in establishments for the treatment or hospitalisation of the sick, infirm, destitute and insane, in dispensaries, children’s homes, sanatoriums, rest homes, old people’s homes, holiday camps, orphanages and boarding schools;
• mobile workers employed by a professional road transport company transporting passengers or goods and involved in road transport activities covered by Community regulations on driving time and rest periods, or failing that, by the law of 6 May 1974 approving the European Agreement concerning the Work of Crews of Vehicles Engaged in International Road Transport (AETR).

In the absence of a collective labour agreement, the law provides that the rules applicable to these persons will be laid down by means of a grand-ducal regulation.

It should be noted that as regards mobile workers employed by a professional transport company for passengers or goods by road and participating in road transport activities covered by Community regulations on driving time and rest periods, or failing that, by the law of 6 May 1974 approving the European agreement on the Work of Crews of Vehicles Engaged in International Road Transport (AETR), a law dated 6 December 2007 laid down the rules. The rules in question are incorporated in Articles L. 214-1 to L. 214-10 of the Labour Code.

A law dated 3 March 20201 regulated working hours in the agricultural, viticulture and horticultural sectors by inserting new Articles L. 216-1 et seq. into the Labour Code.

Who is to be considered a senior manager?

Senior managers are employees who receive significantly higher remuneration than employees covered by the collective agreement or otherwise, taking into account the time required to perform their duties, assuming this remuneration is the counterpart of the exercise of real and effective management power or where the nature of their tasks involves well-defined authority, a large degree of independence in the organisation of work and a large degree of freedom in working hours, and in particular where no constraints in terms of working hours are imposed.

What is meant by working time?

Working time means the time during which the employee is at the disposal of his employer(s), if there are several of them, and during which he must comply with the instructions of the latter without being able to freely pursue his personal occupations.

Accordingly, when employees travel to carry out assignments on behalf of their employer after having been at company headquarters, such travel is considered working time.

How many hours per day and per week can employees work?

While employees and employers are in principle free to determine the working hours, they must nevertheless comply with the limits set by law.

Legal limits are set out on a daily and weekly basis.

The number of working hours per week is in principle limited to 40 hours.

The number of working hours per day is in principle limited to 8 hours.

However, under certain conditions these limits can be extended to 48 hours per week and 10 hours per day.

Can an employee have several jobs?

Any employee who takes on one or more other salaried jobs in addition to his salaried job that amount to a period exceeding 40 hours per week is obliged to notify the Inspectorate of Labour and Mines (ITM) of the jobs held.

How is the working week split into days?

The week consists of 6 working days, i.e. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Employers and employees are free to determine in the employment contract how the number of weekly working hours is to be split up over these working days, providing the legal limits of 8 hours per day and 40 hours per week is complied with.

If the parties decide to spread the weekly working time over 5 days or fewer, then the daily working time can be increased to 9 hours per day. However, the limit of 40 hours per week must never be exceeded.

At what time must the employee report to work and what rest period is required during a shift?

Employees are obliged to report to work at the times stipulated in the employment contract.

The working hours agreed upon by the parties in the employment contract must include a rest period for working days exceeding six hours.

The length of this rest period depends on the nature of the job the employee does. This means that the more strenuous the work, the longer the rest period should be. Generally, this rest period corresponds to the lunch break.

If several rst periods are allowed in one working day, only one rest period can be unpaid. The other rest periods must be paid and count as working time.

Is an employer entitled to unilaterally change the working hours of employees?

The employer can change the working hours of a full-time employee if such change has been provided for in the contract itself by a flexibility clause.

Example of a flexibility clause:

“Working hours may vary according to the needs of the service.”

Failing that, employers must obtain an employee’s agreement. If the employee does not agree, the procedure laid down by law for changing an essential element of the employment contract to the detriment of the employee must be followed.

Can an employer unilaterally change the distribution of weekly working hours over the days of the week?

To address this question, a distinction must be made between full-time and part-time workers.

Part-time employees are those whose weekly working time as laid down in the employment contract is less than the normal working time of the company (which is at most 40 hours per week).

With regard to full-time employees

The employer may change the distribution of the weekly working time as it results from the employment contract, if such a change has been provided for in the employment contract.

Failing that, employers must obtain an employee’s agreement. If the employee does not agree, the procedure laid down by law for changing an essential element of the employment contract to the detriment of the employee must be followed.

With regard to part-time employees

A change in the distribution of the weekly working time over the days of the week can only occur with the express agreement of the employee. Should an employee not agree to a change, modifying weekly working time over the days of the week is not possible.

Are employers obliged to set up a system for recording working hours?

Yes, employers are obliged to set up a system for recording daily working hours that measures working time in an objective and reliable way.