Deviating from regular working hours
The Working Hours Act regulates working hours and how they are defined. Working hours can also be agreed for specific sectors in collective bargaining agreements or at the company level, through working time arrangements. Here is some information about the possibilities to deviate from the general provisions on regular working hours.
In addition, a collective bargaining agreement may specifically facilitate deviations from its provisions on regular working hours, either by local bargaining or agreeing at the workplace level. For local bargaining, following the procedural requirements of the collective bargaining agreement is often necessary.
If you as an employer are bound by a generally binding collective bargaining agreement (non-union employer or not a member of an employer confederation), you can use the local bargaining option on regular working hours enabled by the collective bargaining agreement. If you do this, you must follow the other parts of the provisions for local bargaining in the generally binding collective bargaining agreement, but you do not need to follow the provisions on negotiating sequence or approval regarding local bargaining.
The ability to deviate from regular working hours arrangements is an exception to the main rule, under which an employer may not use the local bargaining options in generally binding collective bargaining agreements made possible by employment legislation. You must agree on regular working hours arrangements with an employee representative, or if none has been elected, jointly with all employees.