Overtime of a private sector employee

Verified 08 June 2026 - Public Service / (Prime Minister)

What is an extra hour? Is the employee free to work overtime and how are they paid? We present the system to you depending on whether you work full-time or part-time.

Full-time

Any hour of work completed, at the request of the employer, beyond the legal duration (35 hours per week or 1,607 hours per year) is an extra hour.

Overtime worked entitles the employee to more favorable remuneration (increased hourly rate) or compensatory rest equivalent to the increase.

Certain overtime hours also entitle you to a compulsory quid pro quo.

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General scenario

The employee may be required to work overtime at the request of his employer.

Senior Executive

The executive is not affected by overtime.

Employee in annual package in days

The employee working in package in days is not affected by overtime.

At the request of the employer

Overtime is worked at the employer's request (written or oral).

In principle, the employee cannot refuse to perform overtime decided by the employer.

Please note

The employee cannot be penalized if he exceptionally refuses to work overtime requested by the employer because he was not notified early enough.

At the request of the employee

The employee cannot claim payment of overtime worked if they have not been requested by the employer.

However, overtime is payable if it is established that the performance of such hours was made necessary by the tasks assigned to the employee.

In this case, the payment of the overtime worked cannot depend on the employee's compliance with a procedure of prior agreement of the employer.

The employer's agreement may therefore be implied. The employer gives its implicit consent when it validates the performance of overtime recorded by the employee in the scoring software.

Example :

The employer is informed by the employee that he has to face an increase in activity. By not offloading it, it does not oppose the performance of overtime.

Overtime can be completed up to a certain number of hours worked per year.

This time limit is called annual quota.

The number of hours provided for in the annual quota shall be defined by collective agreement or company collective agreement or extended branch agreement.

If none of these 3 agreements exist in the company, the maximum number of overtime hours is 220 hours per employee per year.

Overtime is recorded by calendar week.

The employee may work overtime beyond the annual quota. The conditions for the completion of these hours are then set by collective agreement or company collective agreement or extended branch agreement.

However, an employee who works overtime must not exceed maximum weekly working time.

Certain hours carried out beyond the legal working hours are not considered overtime. This is the case in the following cases:

  • Or if it is hours worked for certain urgent works (organization of rescue measures, prevention, imminent accidents)
  • Either in the case of hours worked in excess of the quota and giving entitlement to a counterparty on mandatory rest in addition to the compensatory rest acquired.

The rate of pay for overtime depends on whether or not a collective agreement or a company collective agreement or a extended branch agreement.

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Treaty provisions provided

The collective agreement or company collective agreement or extended branch agreement shall set the remuneration for overtime worked beyond the statutory weekly period.

A simulator is used to determine the overtime premium rate in a collective agreement:

To know what the collective agreement provides regarding compensation in the event of overtime by an employee

The remuneration shall be subject to one or more rates of increase depending on the number of hours worked.

Each rate is the minimum set at 10%.

The surcharge shall apply to the gross amount of salary.

Please note

Overtime (day or night) is counted by calendar week.

Overtime pay may be replaced, in whole or in part, by compensatory rest equivalent.

In this case, the duration of this rest period is equivalent to the increased remuneration.

Example :

An additional hour paid in principle at an increased rate of 50% gives rise to an equivalent compensatory rest (i.e. 1 hour 30 minutes).

In the absence of treaty provisions

In the absence of treaty provisions, the hours worked in excess of the weekly statutory period shall be increased by:

  • 25% for the first 8 hours of overtime worked in the same week (from 36e to the 43e time)
  • 50% for the following hours (from the 44e time)

The surcharge applies to the gross amount of the salary.

Please note

Overtime (day or night) is counted by calendar week.

Overtime pay may be replaced, in whole or in part, by compensatory rest equivalent.

In this case, the duration of this rest period is equivalent to the increased remuneration.

Example :

An additional hour paid in principle at an increased rate of 50% gives rise to an equivalent compensatory rest (i.e. 1 hour 30 minutes).

Overtime worked entitles to a quid-based consideration for the employee.

The counterparty at rest is added overtime pay increase or compensatory rest.

The compensation in the form of rest is provided under conditions which vary according to whether these hours are completed within the limit of the annual quota of overtime that may be worked or beyond.

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Within the annual quota

A quiescent counterparty is possible if it is provided for by collective agreement or company collective agreement or extended branch agreement.

Beyond the annual quota

A quiescent counterparty is mandatory for any overtime worked beyond the quota.

The consideration shall be:

  • Either to 50% overtime worked in excess of the quota for companies of 20 employees or less
  • Either to 100% the same hours if the company employs more than 20 employees

A larger consideration may be set by treaty provisions.

In the absence of treaty provisions, the employee may take a full day or half a day of rest, at his convenience, as soon as the compulsory consideration for rest has reached 7 hours.

The employee sends his request for rest to the employer at least 1 week in advance.

The application shall specify the date and duration of the rest.

In the 7 days upon receipt of the request, the employer informs the employee of its agreement.

In the event of disagreement, the employer may not postpone taking rest for more than 2 months.

Except treaty provisions or uses provided for in the company, hours not worked because of a public holiday shall not be assimilated to from actual working time for overtime counting.

This means that, if the employee has been absent for part of the week and has worked more than 35 hours in that week (i.e. the statutory weekly working time), he has not worked overtime.

Hours beyond the 35e hours are not increased and are paid at the normal rate in this case.

Example :

An employee works 35 hours a week, from Monday to Friday, for 7 hours a day. It operates the following hours: Monday 8 a.m., Tuesday 8 a.m., Wednesday public holiday (usually the employee works 7 hours), Thursday 8 a.m., Friday 8 a.m. This is counted as 39 hours (32 hours + 7 hours for the public holiday) divided into 35 hours at standard rate (i.e. the legal weekly working time) + 4 hours of non-overtime at standard rate. The employer may, however, apply a more favorable count to the employee by considering the last 4 hours as overtime.

When the working time is counted down to week or over 2 weeks in the company, paid leave taken during this period are considered as actual working time for the overtime count.

This means that, if the employee has been absent for part of the week because of paid leave, the hours he would have had to work if he had not been on paid leave are taken into account for the calculation of overtime.

Example :

An employee usually works 35 hours a week (7 hours a day from Monday to Friday). Hours of work are counted at calendar week in his company. The week of May 18 to 24, he worked 33 hours and took 1 day to paid leave on friday. Usually, he works 7 hours on Fridays.

For the overtime count, the actual working time is taken into account 33 hours and the 7 hours which he should have done if he had not been on paid leave on Friday. So he will have done this week 40 hours (33 hours + 7 hours). It exceeds the overtime threshold of 35 hours.

Yes, compensation and overtime rates shall be included on the employee's pay slip.

The employee must receive the amount of overtime worked on the same date as his usual salary.

When a week spans 2 months, overtime payments are deferred to the next payslip.

Overtime carried out in 2022 (and carried over to the 2023 tax return) are exempt from income tax up to €7,500 per year.

Overtime above this limit will be subject to tax.

Example :

Your overtime earned you money €1,500 raw (i.e €1,215 net tax) in 2022. This amount is exempt from tax.

Your overtime earned you money €9,800 raw (i.e €7,938 net tax) in 2022. The taxable amount is €438 (€7,938 - €7,500).

Overtime is exempt pre-filled in the 2023 tax return. It should be ensured that the amount carried over is correctly mentioned.

Overtime worked is exempt from employee contributions basic and supplementary old-age insurance up to 11.31% of salary.

Please note

The calculation of the reduction in social contributions is applied directly to the payroll by the employer.

In the event of non-payment of overtime or failure to take account of compensatory payments on rest, the employee may report the breach to his employer by letter with RAR: titleContent and ask him to recall his salary.

The employee can also get closer to staff representatives, if they exist in the company.

In case of non-settlement of the dispute, the employee may seize labor inspection and/or the Labor Court (CPH).

Please note

The employee can provide any evidence justifying the completion of overtime (hours recorded by scoring system, emails, agenda, etc.).

Part-time

A part-time employee may be required to work beyond the working time stipulated in the contract.

In this case, the employee performs additional hours.

It's not overtime.

Number of additional hours that can be worked

Overtime can be done within the limit of 1/10e the weekly or monthly working time provided for in the contract.

Example :

if the contract provides for a working time of 30 hours per week, the employee may work a maximum of 3 additional hours.

However, it may be extended to 1/3 of the weekly or monthly duration by treaty provisions.

Remuneration for overtime

Any overtime worked shall give rise to an increase in salary.

The rate of increase of an additional hour may be fixed by treaty provisions.

The rate of increase shall be:

  • Either 10% for each additional hour completed within the limit of 1/10e of the working time fixed in the contract
  • Either 25% for each hour completed beyond 1/10e (and up to 1/3)
Right of refusal of the employee

The employee has the right to refuse to work overtime:

  • If he is informed less than 3 days before the date on which overtime is scheduled
  • Or if overtime is worked beyond the limits set by the employment contract

The employee's refusal on any of these grounds is not a fault or a reason for dismissal.

However, the employee cannot refuse to work overtime if he is informed at least 3 days before and that the hours are worked within the limits provided for in the contract.

In this case, the refusal of the employee constitutes a fault that can justify a disciplinary sanction (warning, lay-off...) or, depending on the circumstances, a termination for misconduct.

Simulator - Know what the collective agreement provides for compensation for overtime

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