How the Labor Reform affects me: overtime in part-time contracts

The general objective of the Labor Reform is that unemployment numbers decrease. Thus, it intends to make part-time contracts more flexible, such as: "admitting the execution of overtime in part-time contracts, and including the same in the contribution base for common contingencies". In this way it is intended to open the market so that employers who can not hire full time, do so part time with the possibility that their employees perform extra hours if necessary. Keep reading this article where we tell you all the details about it.

The part-time contract

The working day for a part-time contract can never exceed 77% of the full-time working day established in the collective agreement of application. If there was no agreement, the reference would be the ordinary day: 40 hours per week. The novelty of the Labor Reform 2012 is that now overtime is allowed in any part-time contract . There are only two limits: - the sum of ordinary, complementary and extraordinary hours can never exceed 77% of the full-time work; - and the maximum number of overtime hours is 80 per year, as established in the Workers' Statute.

Types of hours: complementary

The complementary hours are those that exceed the ordinary workday agreed in the contract; but that are contemplated by what must be agreed and distributed, as a rule, in writing. They can only be applied to contracts of an indefinite nature . Of the hours specified in the contract, a maximum of 15% can be complementary hours, a percentage that can be raised up to 30% if it is included in the corresponding agreement. In addition, the complementary hours are paid and quoted in the same way as ordinary hours. For example, an employer and a worker sign a five-hour daily contract from Monday to Friday. But they also agree that the employee can do three more hours a week. Those hours are complementary; so its distribution corresponds to the employer, who will do so depending on the needs of the service, but warning in advance.

Types of hours: the extraordinary ones

The main difference between overtime and complementary hours is that these hours are not signed in advance. Their limit is 80 per year, which can be paid or compensated as a break if they are enjoyed before four months have passed (depending on how the employer and worker agree). The new Labor Reform does not specify which workers can perform these extra hours, so it is understood that overtime can be done by all workers with partial contracts, whether indefinite or temporary. It is also not specified in the 2012 Labor Reform if these hours have to be done immediately after the working day or they can be distributed in another way. Unlike the complementary hours, overtime in part-time contracts only contributions for contingencies common, but not for unemployment benefit.

• Overtime is not included in contracts for training and apprenticeships.
• Neither are contemplated in the case of reduced working hours (except in cases of force majeure).