Should overtime be paid when working from home?

As a remote worker, you can largely determine how your workday unfolds. But what about overtime? Can you demand to be paid for the extra hours you work from home?

No application, except...

In the office, the situation is crystal clear: people who stay longer after office hours to continue working are 'physically' working overtime. A different working policy applies to teleworkers. People who work from home can largely organize their working days themselves, provided that the work is completed on time. In principle, there is no question of overtime when working from home, unless your boss explicitly asks you to work more.

“Overtime can only be worked in special circumstances, such as in the event of an extraordinary increase in work or an accident,” says Catherine Mairy, a lawyer at Partena Professional.

Furthermore, these hours must be worked at the request of the employer to avoid misunderstandings with the employee. It is never up to the employee to decide to work overtime without the authorization of his employer."

Give and take

Teleworkers who are not given enough time to process a file should first discuss this with their manager. It makes little sense to decide to report your overtime to the human resources department yourself. You cannot request to be paid for your overtime without your employer's consent.

Does this mean that as a teleworker you cannot be compensated for your overtime? There is an alternative to compensate for the overtime worked, namely recovery.

Catherine Mairy of Partena Professional sheds more light on this: "If an emergency or exceptional work is requiring the teleworker to work more hours than expected, this is often a matter for discussion. In practice, it is always preferable to promote dialogue between the parties to reach an agreement. For example, the following situation could arise: an employee who had to work all night at the request of his employer to carry out urgent work could agree with him to stop earlier on another day when the workload is lighter."

Talking helps

Bottom line: Overtime is not paid when working from home unless your boss explicitly asks you to work more. Do you need more time than expected for an urgent assignment? Talk to your manager. As a good colleague, he or she will more than likely appreciate and reward your overtime.