Working Hours and Overtime in Burkina Faso

In Burkina Faso, your company must comply with working hour and overtime laws – including daily limits, overtime thresholds, and rest requirements – to stay compliant and build a strong employee experience.

As you plan workforce needs through 2026, you should expect closer scrutiny of working-time practices, more active enforcement of rest and overtime rules, and growing expectations from employees for transparent scheduling and fair compensation. This means aligning contracts, internal policies, and timekeeping systems with statutory standards, training managers on scheduling obligations, and regularly auditing your data to identify excessive hours or missed rest periods before they become legal issues.

• Standard Working Hours
• Overtime Thresholds
• Overtime Pay Rates
• Daily And Weekly Rest Requirements
• Night Work Restrictions
• Penalties For Non-Compliance

What Are The Standard Working Hours In Burkina Faso?

An employee whose age is 17 or younger has a maximum of 8 hours per day and 40 hours per week. An employee whose age is 18 or older is allowed to work 40 hours per week. A minimum meal interval of 30 minutes must be observed by employees who work more than 6 hours in a day. In typical working hours, Monday through Friday, the hours are 08:00 to 16:00.

Maximum Working Hours In Burkina Faso

Under Burkina Faso’s Labour Code, the statutory full-time working schedule is based on a 40-hour workweek for most private-sector employees. This is typically organized as 8 hours per day over 5 days, although employers may distribute the hours differently across the week as long as the weekly ceiling and daily health-and-safety limits are respected. Any time worked beyond the employee’s contractual schedule or the statutory weekly limit generally qualifies as overtime and must be treated accordingly.

For minors under 18, stricter protections apply. Daily and weekly limits are lower in practice, night work is heavily restricted, and employers must ensure that the work does not interfere with schooling or vocational training. You should always verify ages, keep copies of identification documents, and avoid scheduling minors for late-night or excessively long shifts.

Industry-Specific Exceptions

• Agriculture And Seasonal Harvest Operations
• Hotels, Restaurants, And Tourism Services
• Transport, Logistics, And Road Haulage
• Healthcare, Emergency, And On-Call Services
• Security, Guarding, And Surveillance Activities
• Continuous-Process Manufacturing And Mining

Managerial And Exempt Employees

Senior managers and certain categories of highly autonomous employees may be subject to more flexible working-time arrangements. In practice, these employees often work beyond the standard 40-hour week without the same overtime entitlements as hourly or non-exempt staff, provided that their higher level of responsibility and remuneration is clearly reflected in their employment contracts. However, you must still respect fundamental health-and-safety rules, including reasonable limits on daily and weekly working time, adequate rest periods, and protection against overwork.

To reduce risk, clearly define in writing which roles are considered managerial or exempt, describe their working-time expectations, and ensure that their pay structure compensates for the broader availability expected. Misclassifying employees as exempt when they function like ordinary staff can expose you to back-pay claims for overtime and administrative sanctions.

Statutory Full-Time Working Hours In Burkina Faso

For most employees in Burkina Faso, statutory full-time work is 40 hours per week. Collective bargaining agreements or company-level policies may set shorter weekly hours or more favorable arrangements, but they cannot lawfully increase the statutory maximum without applying overtime rules. When designing work schedules, you should align contracts, internal regulations, and payroll systems with the 40-hour benchmark so that any hours beyond this threshold are automatically flagged for overtime calculation.

Where your operations require variable or shift-based schedules, you may use averaging arrangements or shift rotations, but these must still respect the overall weekly limits and ensure that employees receive the required daily and weekly rest. Always document the chosen schedule pattern, communicate it in advance, and keep accurate time records to demonstrate compliance.

Overtime Regulations In Burkina Faso

What Counts As Overtime In Burkina Faso?

In Burkina Faso, overtime generally refers to any working time performed beyond the statutory or contractually agreed normal hours, which for most employees is 40 hours per week. Work performed outside the employee’s regular daily schedule, work on weekly rest days, and work on public holidays can all qualify as overtime, triggering premium pay or compensatory rest depending on the circumstances and any applicable collective agreement.

Overtime must be requested or at least authorized by the employer. You should avoid informal practices where employees extend their working day without explicit approval, as this can still be considered working time for which you may owe overtime pay. Implement a clear written policy that defines when overtime is allowed, who can approve it, and how it is recorded, and ensure that supervisors follow these procedures consistently.

Maximum Overtime In Burkina Faso

Burkina Faso’s working-time framework is designed to prevent excessive overtime that could endanger employees’ health and safety. While specific caps can vary by sector or collective agreement, employers are generally expected to limit overtime to exceptional or temporary needs and to respect an overall ceiling on weekly and annual hours. In practice, this means you should monitor total hours worked per employee, including overtime, to ensure that the combined total does not exceed reasonable weekly limits and that employees still receive their mandatory daily and weekly rest.

Before imposing overtime, assess whether the workload is truly temporary or whether you should adjust staffing levels or shift patterns instead. Systematic reliance on overtime to cover normal business needs can be interpreted by inspectors as a structural understaffing issue and may lead to compliance findings. Keep written justifications for significant overtime periods, especially in peak seasons or during emergencies.

Overtime Payout Rates In Burkina Faso

Overtime in Burkina Faso must be compensated at premium rates above the employee’s normal hourly wage. While exact percentages can be influenced by collective agreements and the time when the overtime is performed, common practice is to apply higher multipliers for overtime worked at night, on weekly rest days, and on public holidays. In some cases, compensatory rest may be granted in addition to or instead of cash payment, but only where this is permitted by law or collective agreement and clearly accepted by the employee.

To remain compliant, define your overtime rates in employment contracts or internal regulations, ensure that your payroll system correctly applies the relevant multipliers, and provide employees with transparent payslips that show base hours, overtime hours, and the corresponding rates. Retain detailed timekeeping records for each employee so that you can substantiate how overtime pay was calculated in the event of an inspection or dispute.

Rest Periods And Breaks In Burkina Faso

In Burkina Faso, employees typically work up to 8 hours per day and 40 hours per week, and rest periods and breaks are structured to protect health and safety within these limits. During the working day, employees who work more than a set number of consecutive hours must receive a meal or rest break, and employers must also ensure that workers benefit from sufficient uninterrupted daily rest between shifts and at least one full day of weekly rest. These protections apply alongside any sector-specific rules or collective agreements that may grant more generous rest entitlements.

• Meal Break Requirements
• Daily Rest
• Weekly Rest
• Minors
• Employer Duties