Legal Working Hours in Sri Lanka: Daily and Weekly
Shop and office staff work 8 hours a day, 45 a week, in a 12-hour spread. Overtime is capped at 12 hours a week, at not less than 1.5 times the rate.
On this page
- The daily and weekly limits
- The 12-hour spread-over and why it matters
- Meal and rest intervals inside the day
- Overtime on top: the weekly ceiling
- Different rules: Wages Board trades and factories
- Shift patterns that break the rules without anyone noticing
- Frequently asked questions
- Do managers get the same hours limit?
- Are drivers and security staff covered by the 45-hour week?
- Is a 12-hour shift ever legal?
- Do these limits change for someone working from home?
- What happens if the roster keeps breaching the spread or the weekly cap?
For shop and office staff, the limit is 8 hours a day and 45 hours a week. The working day cannot spread over more than 12 hours from start to finish, once you count breaks. Overtime on top is capped at 12 hours a week, paid at not less than 1.5 times the hourly rate.
This page is for employers working out a roster. It covers shop and office employees under the Shop and Office Employees Act guide. It also covers IT, KPO and BPO (outsourcing) businesses serving foreign clients. Factory and Wages Board trades have their own rules, covered near the end.
The daily and weekly limits
Normal working hours are 8 hours a day and 45 hours a week, not counting meal and rest intervals (s.3(1)). Six 8-hour days would total 48 hours, 3 hours over the weekly limit. A 5.5-day week of shorter days is one arithmetic way to reach 45 hours (45 hours ÷ 8 ≈ 5.5). It keeps every day at 8 hours or under.
An employee may work for you and for another employer on the same day. If so, the hours for both employers are added together against these limits (s.4). You cannot treat a second job as separate hours.
The 12-hour spread-over and why it matters
The working day cannot run more than 12 hours from the time the employee starts to the time they finish, including all breaks (s.3(3)). This is different from the 8-hour normal-hours limit. A 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. day is a 12-hour spread, exactly at the limit. 2 hours of breaks inside it leave 10 hours of actual work. That is 2 hours past the 8-hour daily normal limit, so those 2 hours are overtime. A 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. day is a 13-hour spread. That breaches the 12-hour limit outright, whatever the actual hours worked.
For women of any age, and for males under 18, the spread including overtime and intervals cannot exceed 9 hours a day (Reg. 2(1)).
Meal and rest intervals inside the day
The Schedule to the Act sets fixed break windows. These breaks are excluded from the 8-hour count.
| If the working day includes | Interval required |
|---|---|
| 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. | One hour, starting in that window |
| 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. | Half an hour, starting in that window |
| 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. | One hour, starting in that window |
| Any other continuous 4 hours | Half an hour at the end of it, unless an earlier interval already falls within it |
A 9 a.m. to 6.30 p.m. day carries a one-hour lunch between 11 and 2, and a half-hour break between 4 and 6. That gives 8 working hours. A night shift from 8 p.m. to 4.30 a.m. carries a half-hour break after each 4 hours worked. Residential hotels, clubs, theatres, airport shops and airline offices may use one longer break of up to 3 hours instead, under the regulations. Accurate clock records show exactly when each shift starts and ends against these windows; see Clock-In Rounding and Grace Periods: How to Set Them.
Overtime on top: the weekly ceiling
Overtime is capped at 12 hours a week (Reg. 6), paid at not less than 1.5 times the hourly rate (Reg. 7). For a monthly-paid employee, the hourly rate is the monthly remuneration (the Act’s word for salary or wages, including cost-of-living allowance, overtime pay and prescribed allowances) divided by 240. That is: divided by 30 days, then by 8 hours (Reg. 8).
Worked example. Monthly remuneration LKR 90,000, 6 hours of overtime in a week:
| Step | Figure |
|---|---|
| Hourly rate | LKR 90,000 ÷ 240 = LKR 375 |
| Overtime pay | LKR 375 × 1.5 × 6 hours = LKR 3,375 |
The overtime calculator runs the same sum. Days of leave or a holiday still count as days worked when you check whether the weekly overtime cap has been reached (Reg. 8A). The statutory leave table is in leave entitlements in Sri Lanka. For deducting pay when someone arrives late within a lawful roster, see Can You Deduct Salary for Late Attendance in SL?
Different rules: Wages Board trades and factories
Not everyone is covered by the 8-hour, 45-hour rule above. Some trades have their own Wages Board: tea, rubber, coconut, garment manufacture, security, printing, hotels and catering, and roughly forty others. Their hours and overtime come from that trade’s Wages Board decision under the Wages Boards Ordinance No. 27 of 1941, not from the Shop and Office Employees Act. The figures are often close to the Act. But you must check the actual decision for that trade. The Labour Department can confirm which decision applies.
Factory premises follow the Factories Ordinance No. 45 of 1942 for safety and welfare. Hours and pay for factory production staff still come from the applicable Wages Board decision, not the Factories Ordinance itself. Where a business runs both an office and a factory, clerical staff are covered by the Shop and Office Employees Act. Production staff are covered by their Wages Board instead.
Shift patterns that break the rules without anyone noticing
Three patterns cause breaches:
- A long single shift, such as 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., that clears 12 hours once breaks are added in.
- Back-to-back shifts, where one shift starts before the previous one’s 12-hour spread has finished.
- Overtime added on top of an already-full week, taking the weekly overtime past 12 hours even though each single day looks fine.
None of these show up by looking at one day in isolation. They show up when someone checks the spread and the weekly total together.
Do this automatically in Humanised. Attendance tracking records the hours behind the 12-hour spread and the weekly overtime cap. It runs on ZKTeco and HikVision devices, or the employee app with location capture, then carries the hours straight into payroll.
This is general payroll guidance. Every case is different. For your own case, speak to a payroll practitioner or a lawyer.
Frequently asked questions
Do managers get the same hours limit?
Yes, if they work for a private-sector shop or office. The Act’s only exclusion (s.3(5)) applies only when both are true: an executive or managerial post in a public institution, with a pay scale whose bottom point is at least Rs.6,720 a year. A private company manager is covered the same as any other employee. See Who Gets Overtime in Sri Lanka? Salaried and Managers for the full manager rules.
Are drivers and security staff covered by the 45-hour week?
Security staff usually fall under a Wages Board decision for the security trade, not the Act. Check that decision for their hours. For a driver, check whether the job is in or about the business of a shop or office. Ask the Labour Department if you are not sure.
Is a 12-hour shift ever legal?
Not for shop and office staff. Normal hours are 8 a day, and the working day itself cannot spread over more than 12 hours including breaks. A “12-hour shift” of actual work goes past both limits unless it falls under a Wages Board decision that allows it for that trade.
Do these limits change for someone working from home?
The sources checked do not deal with work done from home. Apply the same daily, weekly and overtime rules, and ask the Labour Department if you need certainty.
What happens if the roster keeps breaching the spread or the weekly cap?
The Labour Department can inspect the record of hours worked that every employer must keep, and can act on repeated breaches. The fix is the roster, not the record.
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