Questions & Answers
Do the normal 8 working hours/day include lunchtime?
Hello Adv. Ahmed Abbas,
Please help me with the below query:
Do the normal 8 working hours/day include lunchtime?
When an employee is on an hourly rate, is the lunch hour payable?
Kind regards,
Dear questioner,
With reference to your inquiry, please find the below labor law articles for your reference:
The maximum normal working hours for adult workers shall be eight hours in the day, 48 hours in the week. They may be increased to nine hours a day in commercial establishments, hotels, cafeterias, security services, and such other businesses as may be added by the resolution of the Minister of Labour and Social Affairs.
The daily working hours may be reduced by resolution of the Minister of Labour and Social Affairs, in the case of arduous or health-hazardous work. Two hours during the month of Ramadan shall be reduced from the normal working hours. The periods spent by a worker traveling between his home and place of work shall not be included in his working hours.
The daily working hours shall be so regulated that no worker shall work for more than five successive hours without breaks - for rest, meals, and prayer- amounting in the aggregate to not less than one hour. Such breaks shall not be included as part of the working hours.
However, in factories and workshops where work is organized in the form of successive day and night shifts, and in processes where work has to continue uninterrupted for technical and economic reasons, the manner in which breaks for rest, meals and prayer are to be granted shall be specified in a resolution by the Minister.
Dear questioner,
According to the law, the employee will work 8 working hours. As such, the employee shouldn't work more than five continuous hours and as a result, there will be one payable hour for lunch during the 8 working hours.
