Switch to winter time - impact on employees

At the end of this month, we will move to winter time again.

The majority of employees will not be impacted by the clock changes. However, there is a group of employees who will be affected, namely those working during the night of this change. This is because that night, instead of getting an extra hour of sleep, they will have to work an extra hour.

In this blog post, we will briefly answer the question of what to do with employees who have to work during the night the clocks change.

To answer this question, we need to distinguish between employees paid by the hour and those paid monthly.

Employees paid by the hour:

Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) No. 30 provides the answer for employees working in shifts who are not paid on a flat-rate monthly basis.

CBA No. 30 provides the following:

• Employees who also worked in shifts during the switch to summer time earlier this year will now receive pay for only for 8 hours of performed work, although they will actually work 9 hours during this night. The reason behind this is that during the change to summer time, the employees performed only 7 hours of effective work but were paid for 8 hours of work. Thus, in total, they will receive the normal wage for two 8-hour shifts;
• In contrast, employees who only work during the night when we switch to winter time will receive the salary for the hours effectively worked, i.e. for the 9 hours of work.

Employees paid per month:

Employees who are paid on a flat-rate monthly basis are not covered by CLA No 30. The clocks changing does not affect their salary as they receive a fixed monthly salary.