From 13 February 2026, the Employment Contracts Act allows employees and employers to agree on working time as periods of time. A flexible working time agreement is a practical solution for cases where the volume of work, and consequently the need for labour, fluctuates regularly. The new regulation is a further development of the pilot project of variable hour agreements previously in force in the retail sector. It is now possible to enter into flexible working time agreements in all sectors.
What is a flexible working time agreement?
A flexible working time agreement is an agreement between an employer and an employee under which the employee’s working time is divided into agreed working hours and additional hours. This allows the parties flexibility in agreeing on working time – the employer is obliged to guarantee the employee only the agreed working hours, but the employee may, if they wish, work additional hours offered by the employer in addition to the agreed working hours. Such additional hours are not considered overtime.
The agreed working hours and additional hours combined may not exceed full working time. For example, the parties may agree that the employee works part-time for 30 hours a week (agreed working hours) and may work 10 hours of additional hours per week, without these being treated as overtime. The parties may also agree that the employee works between 10 and 40 hours per week. In this case, the employer must guarantee the employee 10 hours of work and may offer up to 30 additional hours of work. The employer is not required to guarantee the employee any additional hours. The employee also has the right to refuse to work the additional hours.
If an employee works beyond the agreed working hours and additional hours, this constitutes overtime and must be compensated accordingly.
With which employees can a flexible working time agreement be entered into?
A flexible working time agreement may be entered into with an employee whose:
- hourly wage is at least 1.2 times the minimum hourly wage and
- agreed working hours are at least 10 hours over a period of seven days.
How should the agreement be formalised?
A flexible working time agreement must be concluded in writing and must include the following conditions:
- the number of agreed working hours;
- the number of additional hours;
- the minimum advance notice period for additional hours;
- the employee’s right to refuse to work additional hours. The employee confirms their consent to additional hours each time beforehand in a format reproducible in writing.
What else should be taken into account?
It is also important for the employer to be aware that if during the past six months an employee has, for the majority of the time, worked more than the agreed working hours, the employee has the right to request an increase of the agreed working hours. If the employer and the employee do not reach agreement on the new amount of agreed working hours, then the employee’s agreed working time, as of the submission of the application to the employer, is the employee’s average number of working hours over a period of seven days during the past six months.
