Court of Cassation ruling on weekly rest and overtime: Double payment is not permitted

The 9th Civil Chamber of the Court of Cassation has issued a notable ruling regarding overtime calculations that concerns private sector employees and employers. The Chamber deemed it "double payment" to count 7.5 hours of work performed on a weekly rest day as both weekly rest pay and overtime pay.

In the case file subject to the ruling, a worker employed as a welding foreman applied to the Labor Court, claiming that their employment contract had been terminated unfairly. The worker requested the collection of severance pay, notice pay, annual leave pay, overtime pay, national holiday and general holiday pay, and weekly rest day pay.

The defendant employer argued that the employment contract had been terminated immediately for just cause. The employer requested the dismissal of the case, stating that the worker had no overtime and had used their annual paid leave.

The court of first instance ruled that the termination was unfair, accepted the worker's claims for severance and notice pay, and ruled for the partial acceptance of the case regarding certain labor receivables. After the file was moved to the appellate court, the Regional Court of Justice overturned the first-instance decision and issued a new judgment, ruling for the acceptance of the case.

Upon the employer's appeal, the file came before the 9th Civil Chamber of the Court of Cassation. The Chamber emphasized that the worker's weekly rest pay was requested separately and that this receivable had been adjudicated by the court.

In the event that working seven days a week is accepted, it has not been taken into account that seven and a half hours of the days corresponding to the weekly rest day were adjudicated as weekly rest. It is not correct to adjudicate both weekly rest pay and overtime pay for the same work in a way that would cause double payment.

For this reason, the Court of Cassation ruled that the 7.5 hours of work on the day corresponding to the weekly rest day should be excluded from the overtime calculation. The Chamber overturned the local court's decision for this reason.