Guide to Doing Business
in Curaçao

Maximum working hours

Employees who earn less than a certain annual income fall under the scope of the Labor Regulation and may therefore not work more hours than the statutory maximum of working hours. The Labor Regulation makes a distinction between schedule workers and non-schedule workers. Schedule workers are employees who work in accordance with a recurrent schedule (timetable) outside of regular office hours.

For non-schedule workers the maximum working hours per week calculated over a four weeks’ period is forty hours, provided the employee does not work more than ten hours a day. The period during which the employee has to work longer than six hours each day has to be interrupted after at the most five hours for a break of at least half an hour.

For schedule workers the maximum working hours calculated over a four weeks’ period is forty-five hours per week, provided the employee does not work more than ten hours a day. Any working hours beyond the above mentioned maximum hours per day and per week is deemed overtime.

An employee is, amongst others, entitled to overtime payment if the employee works during his break or if the employee works longer than the maximum working hours.

Employer and employee may agree in writing that instead of paying out the overtime in money, the overtime shall be compensated completely or partially in days off (time-back).

Non-compliance with the Labor Regulation can result in imprisonment (for a maximum period of four years) or a fine (for a maximum of ANG 100,000), depending on which provision(s) has/have not been complied with.