Puerto Rico’s House of Representatives approved House Bill 1505, a measure meant to clarify provisions of Law 4 of 2017, known as the flexitime law, on alternative work schedules, particularly agreements that let an employee work four days a week in 10-hour shifts. Rep. Roberto López Román of the New Progressive Party (PNP), who introduced the bill, said it does not seek to eliminate overtime pay but to clarify how it applies when an employer and employee agree to a schedule other than the traditional eight hours a day over five days.
Under such an agreement, a worker can complete 40 weekly hours in four 10-hour days. In that scenario, the ninth and tenth hours of each day are not automatically overtime as long as the two parties have a valid agreement, and overtime pay would begin after the agreed 10 daily hours. "I am clarifying the law as it currently stands," López Román said.
Attorney Reynaldo Santiago González, solicitor of the Labor and Human Resources Department, told Telenoticias that alternative schedules have existed in Puerto Rico law since 2017 and that the bill does not eliminate the employer’s obligation to pay for overtime. Hours worked beyond eight a day when there is no agreement, and beyond 40 a week, must be paid at time and a half, he said. About 7,000 private-sector employees currently have agreements to work four 10-hour days a week.