Night work

What it means

Under the Labour Code, night work is work performed between ten in the evening and six in the morning. What counts is the hour actually worked, not the name of the shift or the wording of the employment contract.

A night worker is a narrower notion: someone who regularly works at least three consecutive hours at night, or at least five hundred night hours a year. Special protection applies to them, including an assessment of fitness for work.

Night work is not overtime. Night hours within a regular shift are ordinary working time, and the premium is paid for when the work is done, not how much of it; overtime, by contrast, is work beyond the set weekly hours regardless of the time of day. Where the two coincide, both premiums are due at once.

How it works in practice

Hours worked at night carry a wage premium set as a percentage of the minimum hourly wage, higher for hazardous work. It stacks with the premium for overtime and for work on a public holiday.

The average working time of a night worker may not exceed eight hours within twenty-four, and the basis for both payroll and inspection is the attendance record with exact shift times.

For students on an agreement on temporary student work we check their age. The law does not allow a young employee under eighteen to work at night, save for narrow exceptions, so a roster with a night shift for a seventeen-year-old has to be redone before they start, not after the first payday.

What to watch out for

A shift from six in the evening to two in the morning is night work only for the part after ten, yet those four hours often go unpaid because the shift started in daylight. The labour inspectorate orders the arrears to be paid for the whole period and adds a fine on top.

A night worker must have their fitness for work assessed before being assigned to night work and regularly afterwards. A missing assessment is a separate breach in a health and safety inspection, and if the employee falls ill or is injured, the company has nothing to show that the assignment to night work was lawful.