Legal Restaurant Rosters in Sri Lanka: A How-To
Build restaurant rosters around the 8-hour day, the 12-hour spread, meal breaks and the weekly holiday. What the Shop and Office Employees Act sets.
On this page
- Which rules apply to restaurants
- Split shifts and the spread-over trap
- Meal and rest intervals on a busy service
- The weekly holiday and the half-holiday
- Poya days and mercantile holidays in F&B
- Overtime: the 12-hour weekly cap
- A roster pattern that stays inside the limits
- Frequently asked questions
- Does the Shop and Office Employees Act cover my restaurant, or does a Wages Board?
- Can I split a shift for the lunch and dinner rush?
- Do I need the Commissioner of Labour's sanction to open on a Poya day?
- What if my restaurant runs a service charge on top of wages?
- Do part-time or casual restaurant staff get the same weekly holiday?
Build the roster around four limits: the 8-hour day, the 12-hour spread, the meal and rest breaks, and the weekly holiday. This page covers restaurants under the Shop and Office Employees Act guide. Some restaurants may instead fall under the hotel and catering trade’s own Wages Board decision. Check which one applies to you before you rely on this page alone.
Which rules apply to restaurants
A restaurant that sells food or drink can fall within the Act’s shop definition. If it does, the same hours, overtime and holiday rules apply as for any other shop or office employee. See Legal Working Hours in Sri Lanka for the full detail.
But hotels and catering is one of the trades with its own Wages Board. There are roughly forty others. Where a Wages Board decision covers a trade, it sets the hours, overtime, leave and pay for that trade, not the Act.
A Wages Board for the hotel and catering trade does exist, gazetted under the Wages Boards Ordinance. We could not read the gazette text itself, so this page cannot state its hours, overtime or pay rates.
If your restaurant might fall under that Wages Board, check the current order with the Labour Department first. Do not build your roster on the Act’s figures alone until you know which rule applies.
Split shifts and the spread-over trap
A restaurant roster often splits a shift around a quiet afternoon. On for lunch, off, back on for dinner. The Act allows this. But the whole day, breaks included, cannot spread over more than 12 hours from start to finish (s.3(3)).
A shift from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. is a 12-hour spread, exactly at the limit. Add a delayed close for one late table, and the same day breaches the spread outright, no matter how many hours were actually worked. A late-closing shift may also trigger the night work rules for women.
Normal hours stay capped at 8 a day and 45 a week, not counting breaks (s.3(1)). For women of any age and males under 18, the whole spread, including overtime and breaks, cannot exceed 9 hours a day.
Meal and rest intervals on a busy service
The Act fixes when breaks must fall. These breaks do not count toward the 8-hour day.
| If the shift covers | 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 shift covering both lunch and dinner service needs breaks from more than one row of this table.
Residential hotels, clubs, theatres, airport shops and airline offices may use one longer break of up to 3 hours instead. A standalone restaurant is not on that list, so follow the table above unless the Labour Department confirms otherwise for your business.
The weekly holiday and the half-holiday
Every shop and office employee gets one whole day and one half-day off each week (s.5). It must be given with full remuneration where the employee worked at least 28 hours that week, excluding overtime. Remuneration is the Act’s word for salary or wages, including cost-of-living allowance, overtime pay and prescribed allowances. The holiday must be taken that week or the next.
A restaurant that trades seven days a week still owes every staff member this holiday. Rotating it across the team, rather than closing, is the roster’s job. Combining weekly holidays into one day a month needs the Commissioner of Labour’s prior written sanction. The Acts use different titles for this office.
The Act sets no separate rate for hours worked on the weekly holiday. Some pay those hours as ordinary overtime, at not less than 1.5 times the hourly rate. Others give a substitute day off by policy. Check your contract or handbook for which applies.
Poya days and mercantile holidays in F&B
A restaurant that trades on a Full Moon Poya Day must pay at least 1.5 times the normal daily rate for that day. No sanction from the Commissioner of Labour is needed to work a Poya day.
A Gazetted mercantile holiday is different. Trading on it needs the Commissioner of Labour’s prior sanction. Where sanction is given and staff work, the employer must choose one of two options: give a substitute paid holiday on or before 31 December, or pay double the rate ordinarily paid for that day’s work.
Worked example, monthly-rated staff on LKR 90,000 a month (daily rate LKR 90,000 ÷ 30 = LKR 3,000):
| Situation | Rate required | Pay for that day |
|---|---|---|
| Works a Full Moon Poya Day, normal hours | At least 1.5× the daily rate | At least LKR 4,500 |
| Works a Gazetted mercantile holiday (sanctioned), paid rather than given a day in lieu | 2× the ordinary day rate | LKR 6,000 |
See day off in lieu of holiday pay for when a substitute day, rather than extra pay, is the better choice.
Overtime: the 12-hour weekly cap
Overtime is capped at 12 hours a week, paid at not less than 1.5 times the hourly rate. For a monthly-paid employee, the hourly rate is monthly remuneration divided by 240.
Worked example. Monthly remuneration LKR 90,000, 6 hours of overtime in a week. Hourly rate: LKR 90,000 ÷ 240 = LKR 375. Overtime pay: LKR 375 × 1.5 × 6 hours = LKR 3,375.
Days of leave or a holiday still count as days worked when checking the weekly overtime cap. A private-sector restaurant manager is covered by the same overtime rules as other staff. The Act’s only exclusion applies 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.
We could not confirm how “service charge” (a top-up some restaurants add to a bill and share with staff) is treated. No official source covers its effect on overtime, EPF, ETF, or holiday pay. Check its treatment with the Labour Department or the EPF Department.
A roster pattern that stays inside the limits
Check every shift and every week against these limits before you publish the roster:
- Each shift’s spread is 12 hours or under.
- Hours worked, excluding breaks, stay at 8 a day and 45 a week, unless the extra is paid overtime.
- Overtime for any one employee stays at 12 hours or under that week.
- Meal and rest breaks fall inside the Schedule windows.
- Every employee gets the weekly holiday, that week or the next.
- Poya and mercantile holiday shifts are tagged and paid at the right rate.
Keep a record of hours actually worked, including overtime and holidays. That record is what the Labour Department checks first if a roster is questioned.
Do this automatically in Humanised. Shift and roster software calculates EPF, ETF and APIT from the rates in force.
This is general payroll guidance. Every case is different. For your own case, speak to a payroll practitioner or a lawyer.
Frequently asked questions
Does the Shop and Office Employees Act cover my restaurant, or does a Wages Board?
A restaurant selling food or drink can fall within the Act’s “shop” definition. Hotels and catering also has its own Wages Board. Check with the Labour Department which one covers you.
Can I split a shift for the lunch and dinner rush?
Yes. But the whole day, start to finish, breaks included, cannot spread over more than 12 hours.
Do I need the Commissioner of Labour’s sanction to open on a Poya day?
No. Poya day work needs no prior sanction, only the rate of at least 1.5x. A Gazetted mercantile holiday needs sanction first.
What if my restaurant runs a service charge on top of wages?
We could not confirm how service charge is treated under the Act or by EPF and ETF. Check this with the Labour Department or the EPF Department before you build it into payroll.
Do part-time or casual restaurant staff get the same weekly holiday?
Yes. The Act covers anyone employed in a shop or office.
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