Pursuant to Legislative Decree No 66 of 8 April 2003, your employment contract may be:
- full-time, if it has an average normal duration of 40 hours per week (unless otherwise provided for in collective agreements);
- part-time, if the normal working hours are reduced. In this case, the work can be spread over all days of the week, with a reduction in the normal daily working time (horizontal part-time) or only on a few days of the week during which the worker works in full normal working hours (vertical part-time).
As an employee, you should know that there are certain limits to your working time, which are as follows:
- normal time: it is set at 40 hours per week. However, collective labour agreements may set a shorter duration and relate the normal time to the average duration of work over a period not exceeding one year.
- maximum time: it is laid down in collective bargaining agreements, but the average working time may not in any event exceed 48 hours, including overtime, for each seven-day period. That average working time must be calculated by reference to a period not exceeding four months, but collective agreements may raise that limit to six months or twelve months for specific objective, technical or organisational reasons.
- Daily rest: it is quantified in 11 consecutive hours, every 24 hours. As a result, the maximum daily time is 13 hours per day. The daily rest may be derogated from by collective agreements, provided that equivalent periods of compensatory rest are granted to workers.
- Breaks: if your daily working time exceeds six hours, you as an employee are entitled to a rest break, to recover psychological and physical energy and to eat a meal if necessary. The modes and duration of the break shall be laid down in collective labour agreements, but shall not be less than 10 minutes. These intervals are not paid and are not counted as working time.
- Weekly rest: As an employee, you are entitled to a rest period of at least 24 consecutive hours per seven days, normally coinciding with Sunday, to be combined with 11 hours of daily rest. This consecutive rest period shall be calculated as an average over a period not exceeding fourteen days. The law or collective agreements may lay down exceptions to the frequency of the weekly rest period or its coincidence on Sunday in particular cases or for particular work activities.