The new legal provisions on the authorisation of overtime work were introduced by the Law of 22 December 2006 promoting job retention. These provisions fall within the scope of the measures decided upon by the Tripartite Coordination Commission on 28 April 2006. Until then, all requests for overtime were submitted by companies to the Minister of Labour and Employment for authorisation. Since 1 January 2007, provided that the employee representation or, if there is no representation in the company, the employees concerned, have agreed to the proposed overtime, authorisation of such work is automatic.
Since 1 January 2007, the procedure for companies obtaining authorisation for overtime has been simplified. From now on, if the employee representatives in a company, or the affected employees themselves in the absence of employee representation, give their consent to work overtime, authorisation will be automatic.
The new legal provisions on the authorisation of overtime work were introduced by the Law of 22 December 2006 promoting job retention. These provisions fall within the scope of the measures decided upon by the Tripartite Coordination Commission on 28 April 2006. Until then, all requests for overtime were submitted by companies to the Minister of Labour and Employment for authorisation. Since 1 January 2007, provided that the employee representation or, if there is no representation in the company, the employees concerned, have agreed to the proposed overtime, authorisation of such work is automatic.
System of overtime
The use of overtime is legally limited to a number of exceptional cases, namely:
where it is necessary to prevent the loss of perishable goods or to avoid compromising the product of work;
where it is necessary to enable special jobs to be carried out, such as compiling inventories or balance sheets.
In every case, the company must seek authorisation from the Minister of Labour and Employment.
Since 1977, an unusual increase in the amount of work has been removed from the list of circumstances to which the overtime system applies. However, it is always possible to submit a request to the minister for special authorisation in all three situations, provided that the request is accompanied by supporting arguments about the exceptional circumstances behind it and the reasons why taking on additional employees is not an option.
Authorisation of overtime is not required for work performed following a workplace accident, or for urgent work without which the normal functioning of the company could be impeded.
Towards administrative simplification
The old procedure required companies to receive prior authorisation from the Minister of Labour and Employment before they could allow employees to work overtime when there was a surplus of work. The opinion of the Labour and Mines Inspectorate was also sought on each occasion. This procedure was relatively laborious and involved a considerable amount of work for the Ministry of Labour and Employment (Ministère du Travail et de l’Emploi), despite the fact that most requests received a favourable response. In addition to highlighting the laborious nature of the former procedure, the current Minister of Labour and Employment, François Biltgen, also emphasised that this legislation could deter potential investors from setting up in Luxembourg.
New overtime procedure
Under the new legislation, companies are obliged to send a prior notification of documented requests for overtime work to the Labour and Mines Inspectorate (Inspection du Travail et des Mines, ITM). However, prior notification is equivalent to authorisation when the delegation, or the employees concerned, have expressed a favourable opinion in relation to working overtime. If their opinion is unfavourable, the Minister of Labour and Employment will still consider the request on the basis of the reports drawn up by the Labour and Mines Inspectorate and the Employment Administration (Administration de l’Emploi, ADEM).
The same simplified procedure also applies to requests for authorisation to have an employee in the private sector work on a public holiday.
In order to monitor changes in the number of overtime hours worked, Minister Biltgen has asked companies to submit, as in the past, a summary of overtime hours actually worked at the end of each period for which authorisation has been given. The purpose of this request is to enable the ministry to draw up a list of companies which regularly use overtime, so that they can attend a voluntary meeting at which they will be assisted in finding alternative solutions to this form of work, such as through the recruitment of additional permanent personnel.
Odette Wlodarski, Prevent
Eurofound recommends citing this publication in the following way.
Eurofound (2007), Procedure for authorising overtime simplified, article.
