Work and rest during Holy Week

The Labor Code states that Good Friday is a mandatory rest day, it is paid as an ordinary working day, which means that, in general, companies close their operations on that day and employees do not work.

Employees who work on Good Friday are entitled to receive payment of their salary with a surcharge of 150%, and to enjoy a compensatory rest day during the week. The above-mentioned surcharge includes the payment of the compensatory rest day. However, if the employee works on the compensatory day, that day must be paid with a 50% surcharge.

Taking into consideration that, generally, the government closes its offices from the previous Thursday afternoon, many companies also grant this additional rest time or agree with their staff to compensate for the hours granted as rest time, through additional work on the previous days, which is commonly known as time-off compensation.

The same happens with companies that work on Saturdays and due to the Panamanian Christian tradition of celebrating Holy Week, they also arrange with their employees’, agreements to compensate the concession of that day off for hours worked in previous days.

The risk of agreements to work additional compensatory hours is the fact that in Panama, to work more than the ordinary working day, constitutes overtime that must be paid with the special rates (surcharges) established by the labor law.

Another option that we recommend is to deduct from the accumulated vacations, by agreement with the employees, the time granted as free time during Easter. This possibility, which is not regulated by the Labor Code, is more attractive for both, the staff, and the company, as avoids the risk of claiming overtime worked.

For more information, please get in touch with our Labor Law team at [email protected].