Employee working time: individualized hours
Verified 24 April 2024 - Directorate for Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister)
Can the employee benefit from a personalized adjustment of his working hours? Can the employer refuse the employee's request? We present you with the information you need to know.
A system of individualized working hours allows the employee who benefits from it to choose his working hours.
The employee can then take up and leave his work at a different time than other employees of the company.
Example :
The employee can choose his hours during the day, starting early in the morning or finishing later in the afternoon.
Any employee can request to benefit from individualized hours.
The family caregivers and the relatives of a disabled person shall, under the same conditions, be provided with individualized timetables to facilitate the accompanying of that person.
Please note
The Labor Code does not impose any formalities concerning the employee's request for individualized working hours. It is therefore advisable, to avoid any dispute, to make the request to the employer in writing (letter with RAR: titleContent or e-mail, for example).
The employer's acceptance or refusal depends on the employee's personal situation.
General case
The employer may refuse the employee's request for individualized working hours, for example because of the proper functioning of the company.
If the employer accepts the employee's request, he must consult the Social and Economic Committee (ESC) and get his approval.
In the absence of staff representatives, the labor inspectorate must authorize the introduction of the system of individualized timetables.
The new device must be validated by the labor inspection in the 2 months after the application has been filed by the employer.
Disabled employee
Reminder
An employee with a disability shall have the right to an individualized timetable if he so requests.
The family caregivers and the relatives of a disabled person are also entitled to it in order to facilitate the support of that person.
The employer cannot object.
The employee who benefits from individualized working hours chooses his arrival and departure times with the agreement of his employer.
However, he must respect the arrival and departure times provided by the employer.
In the case of the installation of an individualized scheduling device, a fixed working range can still be provided. During this fixed range, each employee must be present in the company.
Example :
A variable-time arrangement may define:
- A time range of arrival times between 7:30 and 10:00 and a time range of departure times between 16:00 and 19:00
- A fixed range of mandatory presence between 10am and 12pm and another fixed range of mandatory presence between 2pm and 4pm.
An exact count of the working time each employee has worked each day can be made by means of a scoring system (manual, automatic or computer).
The employee must also comply with the provisions laid down for the legal working time and rest periods daily and weekly.
Individualized schedules can result in hours being delayed from one week to the next.
These carry-overs are determined by collective agreement or branch agreement or by collective company or establishment agreement.
In the absence of an agreement, the number of hours which may be carried over from one week to another shall be Maximum 3 hours.
In the case of cumulative carry-overs from one week to another, the maximum number of hours that may be carried over shall be 10 hours.
However, a collective company or establishment agreement may provide for a different maximum number of hours carried over (higher or lower).
If the employee who benefits from the individualized timetable does not respect the hours postponement, it may expose itself to a disciplinary sanction.
Please note
The hours postponed by free choice of the employee shall not be paid in overtime.
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Telephone administrative information - Allo Public Service
For more information on this topic, you can contact Allô Service Public.
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The informants who answer you belong to the ministry responsible for labor.
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Arrangements for individualized timetables (public policy)
Hour Carry Forward (Collective Bargaining Field)
Hour Carry-Over (Supplementary Arrangements)
Authorization of individualized timetables (public policy)
Postponement of hours (public order)