Hours and overtime: when it is a right and when it is exploitation
What the law provides on hours, rest and overtime, and how to record your time in case of a dispute.
Hours are the second most disputed thing after pay and the least documented. The worker remembers working; the employer remembers a different number; no paper settles it. Whoever logs their hours from day one wins an argument they will probably never need to have — and wins it if they do.
What the law generally provides
- A cap on daily and weekly hours.
- A weekly rest day.
- Breaks during shifts; work is not counted as unbroken.
- Reduced hours during Ramadan for those fasting.
- Anything beyond the cap is overtime, paid above the normal rate.
The figures differ between Saudi Arabia and the UAE and are updated, so check with the authority. The principle holds in both: there is a ceiling, and exceeding it has a price.
The commonest trap: the all-in salary
You are told the salary "covers everything", then work twelve-hour days for the same money. Agreeing a salary does not remove the right to overtime pay, nor make unlimited hours something you consented to. If your contract states hours, what exceeds them counts.
Record your hours — that is the whole thing
No elaborate system is needed. A small notebook or a note on your phone, filled in each day:
- The date, the time you started, the time you finished.
- The site, if you move between them.
- The supervisor who was there.
- Anything unusual: work on a rest day, a night shift.
Log daily, not weekly. A record written at the time is far stronger than memory six months later, and a photograph of the attendance screen is stronger than both.
Other evidence worth keeping
- Photographs of the attendance terminal or the sign-in sheet.
- WhatsApp messages from a supervisor setting times or shifts.
- Rotas posted on site — photograph them.
- Colleagues who worked the same shifts.
When it goes too far
Sustained excessive hours without pay is a matter for a labour complaint, not for patience. It is also a safety matter: fatigue is a direct cause of site injuries and heat illness. See the guide on site safety and heat.
Figures and exceptions are updated. Check the labour law in force where you work before building a claim on a number read here.
The figures in the text, not only “they differ”
The Saudi cap is written down. Article 98: eight hours a day or forty-eight a week, and in Ramadan six hours or thirty-six a week for Muslims. Article 107: an overtime hour equals the hourly wage plus 50% of the basic wage. Article 99, which mentions nine hours, is an exception by ministerial decision for named categories, not a clause in a workshop contract. The arithmetic, and how it differs from the UAE premium (25%, then 50% at night), is in the overtime-pay guide. UAE hours and leave are in that guide.
The line above, that the figures differ and are updated, stays true for exceptions and later decisions. It is not a reason to ignore Article 98. If your day is twelve hours and the wage does not move, the daily log this guide describes is what gets attached to a complaint, and the sum is in the other guide.
Article 101: a worker is not worked more than five continuous hours without a break for rest, prayer and meals of not less than half an hour, and does not stay at the workplace more than twelve hours a day. Article 102: those rest periods are not counted as actual working hours if they were given. The break is not an hour whose wage you claim, and not an hour whose wage is cut. If it was not given, the unbroken day is logged as it was. The weekly rest day is a right. It does not disappear because the project is “in a hurry”. Work on that day is recorded with the extra hours in the overtime-pay guide.
Sources
Rules and fees change and differ by country and employer. Always check with the official authorities before paying or signing anything.