Workday Regulations and Rest Periods: Legal Requirements

Posted on Jan 10, 2025 in Tourism

Working Day and Rest Duration: Formal Requirements

One of the formal requirements of the employment contract is the establishment of the time period during which employees will provide services for the company. Two types of days are established:

Ordinary Day

The time period (weekly, bi-weekly, annual) for which ordinary tasks are performed.

  • 40 hours per week of actual work in annual calculation.
  • Limits the distribution of a normal day (maximum 8 hours daily, 9 hours effective daily for children).
  • Rest: daily 6 hours, 15 minutes for minors, collective agreement (CN) 4 days, 30 hours, 30 minutes.

Irregular Day

This is when the 40-hour work week differs from the reference work week.

Requirements

  1. It has to be fixed in the collective agreement or agreed upon with the representatives of employees.
  2. Between the end of a workday and the beginning of the following, there must be a minimum rest of 12 hours.
  3. The minimum weekly rest day is one and a half uninterrupted days. If the employee is a minor, it is two days.

Breaks

  1. Unbroken days longer than 6 hours require a minimum of 15 minutes of rest, which is not considered effective working time unless specified by the collective agreement.
  2. When the worker is a minor and the day exceeds 4.5 hours, the rest is 30 minutes.
  3. The minimum weekly rest periods can accumulate up to 14 days. If you work from Monday to Sunday, during two weeks you have 3 days of rest.

Special Days

Certain activities require a different distribution of the work week.

Sectors with Special Days

  • Extended time: working in the field, trade and catering, transport, work at sea, shift work.
  • Reduced working hours: work in cold storage, work exposed to environmental hazards, interior work in mines.

In these cases, the reductions have breaks that must be rewarded with other breaks of no less duration, and these breaks cannot be replaced with compensatory time.

Work Calendar

  • Must be in writing and visible.
  • Must observe national holidays (14 days for each province, 2 local).
  • 30 days of paid vacation, unrecoverable, natural, 2 months in advance.

Paid Leave

  • 15 days for marriage.
  • 2 days for the birth or death of a child, or an accident or serious illness.
  • 1 day for transfer to a regular house; if the displacement is required, it is 4 days.
  • For the indispensable time for public performance of duty or personal, inexcusable reasons, such as assistance during childbirth or jury duty.

Work Schedules

Night Work

  • From 10:00 PM to 6:00 AM.
  • Maximum 8 hours averaged over a 15-day period, provided that at least 3 hours are at night.
  • Prohibited for minors.
  • Has a specific fee (night shift bonus).

Exceptions

  • Specific sectors (special days).
  • To prevent accidents or damage or to make repairs.
  • In case of irregularity in the relay shifts due to causes outside the company.

Shift Work

  • One and a half days of rest per week.
  • Half a day of combined rest for up to 4 weeks, or you will enjoy another day of the week.
  • Continuous or discontinuous pace.
  • Rotation of workers so that no worker is on the night shift for more than two consecutive weeks, except for voluntary attachment.
  • Production processes of more than 24 hours have a specific fee (shift bonus and night bonus).

Overtime

  • Common: 80 hours per year and voluntary (optional unless otherwise agreed upon, prohibited for minors, cannot perform night work).
  • Mandatory (Force Majeure): To prevent or repair damage claims or other extraordinary and urgent situations (can be done during night hours).