Working Hours and Salaries for Roster Shifts

No. 01/25                     February 2025    

It has been more than three years since the Revised Labour Law (Labour Law) came into force. For the first time, Labour Law provided detailed regulations for “roster shifts". According to Article 92.3 of the Labour Law, “For roster shift employees, the working day shall not last more than 12 hours, and overtime pay shall be calculated and paid based on Article 109.1 in accordance with Article 87. This article has created uncertainty in the application of the law and created a discrepancy between employees and employers as to how normal working hours were determined.

To clarify, the main point of contention is whether the normal working hours for roster shift employees should be calculated as 12 hours a day or 8 hours. Labour rights disputes over this issue have arisen extensively, and the Supreme Court (SC) has received and resolved several complaints. These types of disputes are usually resolved by the courts of first instance and the appellate courts, usually in favor of the employer. Instead, the SC received and resolved the complaints on the grounds that they were "bridging the gap in the application of the law" and that they were “of general importance in principle to the establishment of new legal concepts or the application of the law.“

This Legal Insight presents a brief summary of how roster shift working hours have been understood and applied in the SC resolutions.

What happened?

Between May and October 2024, the SC resolved several disputes related to roster shift working hours. The disputes focused on the issue of not considering 4 hours out of the 12-hour workday as overtime and not paying the corresponding overtime pay. The vast majority of the disputes were decided in favor of the employer, with the Court of First Instance and the Appellate Courts dismissing t he claims. Instead, the SC held that the Court of First Instance and the Appellate Courts had failed to properly interpret the Labour Law and therefore had reason to rectify it and satisfy the plaintiff's claims.

Supreme Court’s analysis

Below is a brief summary of the main issues raised by the SC in satisfying the claim and resolving it in favor of the employees:

Firstly, the normal working hours for roster shift employees are 8 hours per day: Article 92.3 of the Labour Law states that the length of the workday for a roster shift employee is "not more than 12 hours," not "12 hours." In other words, the length of the normal working day for a roster shift employee shall not exceed 8 hours, and the employer may arrange for an extension of up to 4 hours as agreed with the employee, for a total of 12 hours.

Thus, the typical one-month work hours of a roster shift employee are 112 hours. The average onemonth working hours for a roster shift employee is 168 hours, which is not a violation  of the norm of workinghours, but it should not be treated as a roster shift workday. The SC has ruled that the Court of First Instance and the Appellate Courts’ conclusion that 14 days of long shift work and 14 days of rest are incorrect, including compensation for an employee being employed in excess of normal working hours.

Second, the legal status of the employee and the conditions of employment should not be impaired. In the minutes of the joint session of the Standing Committee on Justice and the Parliament that discussed the draft revision of the Labour Law, it was mentioned that if the roster shift was reduced to 14:14, the salaries received at the time would be reduced by up to 35 percent. In other words, the SC concluded that while the law stipulates that the roster shift work arrangement is 14:14, there is no justification for reducing or degrading salaries. 

Third, “roster shifts" are a distinct concept that distinguishes them from ordinary labour. A 14-day rest procedure is unique to a roster shift because an employee is placed in a remote location other than where he or she is permanently resident, and he or she is performing a task for 14 days. The Labour Law provides for a 14-day rest period for an employee who has worked roster shifts, which means that he or she has worked one shift within the employer's supervision in accordance with a specific set of procedures outside the home. Hence, a period of 14 days of rest would not be considered as compensation.