Legal working hours

The legal limit on working hours is 35 hours per week, or 1607 per year for full-time employees. This reference limit applies to all companies, regardless of size. It is a threshold above which overtime hours are calculated.

It is not a minimum time limit (workers may be employed on a part-time basis), nor a maximum limit: overtime is permitted, as long as the maximum limits are respected, beyond which employees cannot be asked to work.

This legal time limit came into force on January 1st 2002.