Night work, overtime, public holidays and Sundays: how they are recorded and calculated

Why they must be recorded separately

Night work, overtime, Sunday and public-holiday work are not part of "ordinary" hours. The Croatian Ordinance on working-hours records (NN 55/2024) requires them to be recorded separately, because they directly affect pay and workers' rights. If all hours sit in a single column, payroll is inaccurate and the inspectorate is missing data.

What the law says about pay premiums

The Croatian Labour Act provides that a worker is entitled to increased pay for difficult conditions, overtime, night work and work on Sundays and public holidays. The size of the premium is not the same for everyone; it is set by a collective agreement, employment rulebook or employment contract, so the first step is to know which premiums apply at your company.

Night work

The Croatian Labour Act treats work performed between 22:00 and 06:00 the following day as night work. For night hours to count, the clock-in must carry the exact time, so the system relies on the record created at the entrance rather than on a later estimate.

Overtime by the weekly quota

Overtime is not assessed by a single day alone. With redistributed working hours, what counts as overtime depends on the weekly quota and the average across the period. Manual calculation here is especially prone to errors.

Where errors arise

When premiums are calculated by hand, in a spreadsheet or at the end of the month, it is easy to overlook which hour was night, which was overtime and which fell on a public holiday. Errors show up exactly where they cost the most, in payroll, and are hard to prove after the fact.

How to solve it

When the clock-in is created at the source, the system separates on its own regular work, overtime by the weekly quota, night, public-holiday and Sunday hours, each according to every worker's schedule. Workers see their hours the same day, and the report is ready for payroll and for the inspectorate. See the usage scenarios or pricing.

Note: this text is informational. The size of premiums depends on the collective agreement, employment rulebook or employment contract. Source: the Croatian Labour Act (zakon.hr).