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Maximum weekly hours
Practical Law ANZ Glossary w-017-6660 (Approx. 4 pages)
Glossary
Maximum weekly hours
The maximum hours a national system employee can be required or requested to work by an employer in a week.
The maximum weekly hours standard forms part of the National Employment Standards (NES) contained in Part 2-2 of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (FW Act). The maximum weekly hours standard seeks to regulate employees working excessive hours by:
- Imposing a rule that:
- full time employees must not be requested or required to work more than 38 hours per week, unless the request to work additional hours is reasonable (section 62(1)(a), FW Act); and
- part time employees must not be requested or required to work more than the lesser of 38 hours per week and the employee's ordinary hours of work, unless the request to work additional hours is reasonable (section 62(1)(b), FW Act).
- Providing employees with a statutory right to refuse to work additional hours above their maximum weekly hours where the requirement is unreasonable (section 62(2), FW Act).
There are questions over whether the maximum weekly hours standard applies to casuals (see Re 4 yearly review of modern awards - reasonable overtime [2018] FWCFB 6680 at [23]).
Central to the maximum weekly hours standard is the assessment of when additional hours requested or required to be worked by an employer are reasonable additional hours. The maximum weekly hours standard also provides a mechanism for the averaging of weekly hours for award/agreement free employees over a specified period to facilitate patterns of work, such as roster patterns, where weekly hours may change over a defined period. It provides that, subject to a requirement of reasonableness, modern awards and enterprise agreements can provide for averaging of hours of work (Division 3, Part 2-2, FW Act).
For more information on maximum weekly hours, see: