Aruba Employment Law

The normal working hours for employees with a 6-day working week shall not exceed 45 hours per week and 8 hours per day. In the case of a 5-day workweek, the normal working hours shall not exceed 40 hours per week and 8 hours per day. And in the case of employees with a 4-day working week, the normal working hours shall not exceed 36 hours per week and 9 hours per day.

In exceptional cases, where it is necessary for the performance of activities in a particular organization, the government authority may allow weekly working hours up to a maximum of 60 hours per week inclusive of overtime work.

On call refers to the time period between 2 consecutive shifts or during the break. An employee who is required to provide on-call services should be reachable as soon as possible in order to perform the work as may have arisen in unforeseen circumstances.

• • • On-call hours worked should be considered overtime and be paid a 50% premium.
    • At least 30 minutes have to be paid per call. If the employee is called again within 30 minutes after the end of the previous call, the working hours between the two calls are considered to be continuous working hours.
    • On-call employees, whether they perform work or not perform work during the on-call hour shall be entitled to an additional premium payment of at least 1% of their gross monthly wages per day.

Shift Work – Work performed between 6 am and 12 am according to a periodic work schedule on work days and times based on the nature of business of the employer is considered shift work. Labor Ordinance, 2013 (last amended as of 2021), Art. 1, 8 – 9 and 25.

Recording Requirements – An employer shall maintain a record of the overtime worked by the employees in the past 12 months along with the dates on which the overtime work was performed, the duration of the overtime worked, and the compensation given for the overtime work. The employer is also obliged to maintain a register with a record of the annual vacation taken by each employee. Labor Ordinance, 2013 (last amended as of 2021), Art. 31 and Holiday Ordinance (last amended as of 2021), Art. 14

Any work performed beyond normal working hours is considered overtime. An employee’s working time including overtime work shall not exceed 12 hours per day. The weekly working hours inclusive of overtime shall not exceed 55 hours calculated over a reference period of 4 weeks.

Any overtime works up to 15 minutes is not considered overtime. And overtime work in a fraction of a minute is always rounded up to the nearest half an hour. For example, overtime work performed as of 15 minutes should be rounded to 0.5 hours (30 minutes).

In cases, where an employee has worked for more than 10 hours per day, the employee shall be entitled to a hot meal or a meal allowance and any additional transportation costs incurred in connection with the overtime work.

Pay – An employee who performs overtime work is entitled to a premium of 50% on regular wages. 

Compensatory time off – An employee and employer may also agree via an agreement to take compensatory paid time off in lieu of overtime wages i.e. 1.5 hours of time off in lieu of each hour of overtime work performed.  The employer and employee may decide to take the compensatory time off in whole or part depending upon the allowances as may have been decided between the parties. Labor Ordinance, 2013 (last amended as of 2021), Art.  13 – 17.

Night work is work performed between 12 am and 6 am. Employees are required to perform at least 4 hours of work during the night period to be considered night work. The working hours excluding breaks shall be a maximum of 8 hours per night shift. 

The employer shall arrange the working schedule in such a manner that a particular employee does not work more than 14 times in the night shift in a period of 4 consecutive weeks.

Employees performing night shift work shall be entitled to receive an uninterrupted rest period of at least 12 hours in case the shift starts after 2 pm and ends after 2 am or the night shift ends before or at 2 am. However, once in a consecutive period of 7 days, the rest period can be reduced to 8 hours.

Employees who perform 6 consecutive weeks of work during the night shift shall be entitled to an uninterrupted rest period of at least 48 hours. Labor Ordinance, 2013 (last amended as of 2021), Art.  26.

An employee whose working hours are for more than 6 hours per day is entitled to an unpaid break of at least 30 minutes after a maximum of 5 hours of work. Any break of fewer than 15 minutes shall not be counted as a break.

Work during break time – An employee shall not be required to work during break time. In case, an employee performs work during the break time, it shall be considered as overtime work.

Pay – An employee who works during break time shall be entitled to a premium of 50% on regular wages. An employee and employer may also agree via an agreement to take compensatory paid time off in lieu of overtime wages. Labor Ordinance, 2013 (last amended as of 2021), Art. 12.

Daily Rest – An employee is entitled to at least 11 hours of rest from work per day inclusive of the time period between 12 am and 6 am of the following day. Labor Ordinance, 2013 (last amended as of 2021), Art. 10.

Weekly Rest – An employee is generally entitled to 1 day of rest per week on Sunday. Labor Ordinance, 2013 (last amended as of 2021), Art.10, 16 – 17.

An employee who performs work on a weekly rest day shall be entitled to a 50% premium on the regular rate of pay.

Overtime on Rest Day – An employee who performs overtime work for the entire day of the weekly rest period is entitled to a premium of 100% on regular wages. An employee who performs work for half of a weekly rest day is entitled to a premium of 75%. 

Compensatory Time off – An employee and employer may also agree via an agreement to take compensatory paid time off in lieu of overtime wages i.e. 1.5 hours of time off in lieu of each hour of overtime work performed. The employer and employee may decide to take the compensatory time off in whole or part depending upon the allowances as may have been decided between the parties.

An employee who has been called to work on a scheduled day off shall be paid for at least 3 hours at the overtime rate, even if the work performed is less than 3 hours. Labor Ordinance, 2013 (last amended as of 2021), Art.10, 16 – 17.