Answer:
Pursuant to the labour law, the normal working hours of the Employee must not exceed 8 hours/day and 48 hours/week. In cases the Employer stipulated the weekly working hours, the normal working hours must not exceed 10 hours/day and 48 hours/week[1]. Therefore, the regulations of 12 working hours/day for the Employee is not consistent with the labour law. If the Employer requires the Employee to work more than the said normal working time (12 hours/day), the Employer is obliged to pay the Employee more salary for extra working hours[2].
In reality, the labour law on overtime working is often flexible and aims to assist the Employer in addressing their production and business needs during peak seasons. Therefore, even if the Employer accepts overtime salary for the Employee, the Employer may not set out a working time of 12 hours/day as a fixed frame of normal working hours for the Employee. Because when arranging overtime work, the Employer must meet the following conditions:
- Obtain the consent by the Employee;
- Ensure that any Employee’s overtime is no more than 50% of the normal working hours/day; if the weekly working hours are applied, the total number of regular working hours and overtime hours are no more than 12 hours/day or 40 hours/ month; and
- Ensure that the Employee’s overtime is no more than 200 hours/year, except for a number of special cases prescribed by the Government, which allows no more than 300 overtime hours/year.
[1]Article 105.2 Labour Code
[2]Article 98 Labour Code
