The Limitations of Part-Time Work and the Use of Additional Hours

When a company uses part-time work, certain specific mentions must appear in the employment contract, and above all, the schedules can only be modified under conditions.

Thus, if the employer wishes his employee to work more hours than those provided for in the contract, he must comply with rules strictly regulated by law and harshly sanctioned in the event of violation of these.

The use of overtime limited to 10%

The part-time employee can work hours beyond what is provided for in his employment contract, these are additional hours.

However, the law fixes the volume of additional hours at 10% of the contractual duration of work without the accomplishment of these additional hours leading the employee to work up to full time. Thus, an employee whose working time is 30 hours a week cannot work more than 3 hours as overtime. The hours worked will be remunerated at the basic hourly rate with a 10% increase.

However, an extended branch agreement can increase this limit to one third of the contractual duration (always subject to not reaching the legal working time of 35 hours). Additional hours worked between one tenth and one third of working time will be increased at the rate of 25%.

The cap on the use of overtime quickly proved to be problematic and employers who exceeded the limits were sanctioned. Indeed, when an employee reaches the legal working time (35 hours per week), he can request the requalification of his full-time employment contract with the corresponding salary reminders.

In order to be able to temporarily increase the working hours of part-time employees, the law has introduced a specific system: additional hours.

The use of additional hours

If the use of hours beyond the contractual time exceeds the limits mentioned above, it is possible to use additional hours. This system is only possible if an extended branch agreement provides for it, failing which, the employer cannot exceed additional hours.

The branch agreement:

– determines the maximum number of amendments that can be concluded, within the limit of eight per year and per employee, apart from the cases of replacement of an absent employee designated by name;

– provides for the salary increase for the hours worked under this amendment;

– determines the terms according to which employees can benefit as a priority from additional hours.

The employee must expressly accept the supplementary hours riders. Thus, an addendum to his employment contract containing the information provided for in the branch agreement must be signed.

The hours worked as part of the additional hours may be increased according to the provisions of the agreement. Finally, additional hours worked beyond the duration determined by the endorsement give rise to a salary increase which cannot be less than 25%.

Beware of full-time requalification

Recent case law confirms that the use of additional hours does not allow the legal working time to be reached. Thus, the employer who uses the additional hours to reach 35 hours per week takes a significant risk and may see the contractual relationship reclassified as full-time for the entire duration of the contract (with the corresponding salary reminders, etc.).