Overtime during notice period: Your rights and obligations

Questioner

Can your employee force you to work overtime when you are within your notice period, if you have resigned?

Lawyer

If overtime is regulated in the employment contract or collective labour agreement, you as an employee are obliged to work overtime. Otherwise, you are obliged to do so if this is customary in the company or sector in which you work. If such a custom does not exist, your employer can also require you to work overtime if the company's interests require this. It does not matter whether you are in the notice period. After all, you are still officially employed by your employer until the last day of the notice period.

Questioner

Thanks for your response, however I only have an additional question, I have indicated (due to company interests) that I will work the hours in the following days (in my case it concerns structural overtime, more than 1000 overtime hours in 5.5 years based on a 40-hour contract) my position is calculator/sales employee (no collective labor agreement) and I have never said no to working overtime. Due to an induction at my new employer I refused to work that day, which is normally also my fixed day off. What could be the consequences of this?

Lawyer

You must be prepared to work overtime within reasonable limits. If your employer requires you to work more than 54 hours in a week (overtime), you may refuse to do so. Overtime that exceeds 54 hours per week is only permitted in consultation. In any case, you may not work more than 60 hours in a week according to the Working Hours Act. If the overtime is scheduled structurally, it is no longer overtime but a problem with the staffing at your employer. Overtime must remain incidental. It is best to appeal to the Working Hours Act (Article 5:7 ATW) and report this in writing to your employer. If that does not help, you can hire a lawyer/attorney to stand up for your rights. However, since you have already resigned and are in the notice period, I advise you not to do so.