Can My Boss Force Me to Work Overtime? Australian Law Explained

Under section 62 of the Fair Work Act 2009, your employer can ask you to work overtime — but only if the additional hours are reasonable. You can refuse unreasonable additional hours, and your employer can't punish you for doing so.

The starting point is this: full-time employees can't be required to work more than 38 hours per week unless the extra hours are reasonable. For part-timers, it's whatever your agreed ordinary hours are. Anything above those ordinary hours is additional hours, and the reasonableness test kicks in.

Casuals are in the same boat. An employer can request additional hours, but a casual can refuse if those hours are unreasonable. Given casuals don't have guaranteed hours in the first place, this gets a bit more complicated — but the legal protection is the same.

The critical thing to understand: "reasonable" doesn't mean "whatever your boss reckons." There's a proper legal test, and if it goes to the Fair Work Commission, they'll apply it.

Section 62(3) of the Fair Work Act lists the factors for determining whether additional hours are reasonable:

• Any risk to your health and safety — this is listed first for good reason. If you're fatigued, working with heavy machinery, or driving, extra hours could be genuinely dangerous
• Your personal circumstances — caring responsibilities, second jobs, study commitments, health conditions
• The needs of the workplace — a genuine operational emergency carries more weight than poor planning by management
• Whether you're being compensated properly — overtime rates, time in lieu, or other benefits for the extra hours
• How much notice you were given — being told at 4:55pm that you need to stay until 9pm is a lot less reasonable than a week's notice
• Your usual pattern of work — if you regularly work overtime and have always done so, that's relevant context
• The nature of your role and level of responsibility — a senior manager might reasonably be expected to put in more hours than a junior retail worker
• Any other relevant matter

No single factor is decisive. It's the full picture. But if your employer is asking you to work 55-hour weeks with no extra pay and short notice, they'll struggle to call that reasonable.

The National Employment Standards set 38 ordinary hours per week as the maximum for a full-time employee. But your award or enterprise agreement might spread those hours differently — for example, averaged over a roster cycle, or with provisions for specific shift patterns.

Some awards explicitly cap overtime. For example:

• The General Retail Industry Award caps ordinary hours at 38 per week (or an average of 38 over a roster cycle of up to 4 weeks)
• The Manufacturing and Associated Industries Award generally limits overtime to reasonable additional hours beyond 38 per week or 7.6 per day
• Some awards set a daily maximum — often 10 or 12 hours including overtime

Here's what catches people out: salaried employees on annualised salary arrangements sometimes have overtime built into their salary. Your contract might say your salary covers "reasonable additional hours." That doesn't mean unlimited hours — the reasonableness test still applies. And if you're on an award, the annualised salary has to actually cover what you'd earn under the award including overtime rates. If it doesn't, your employer owes you the difference.

Check your award or EA. If you're not sure which one covers you, use our work hours tool to figure it out.

If you're working overtime, you need to be paid for it. Most awards set overtime rates at:

• First 2-3 hours of overtime: 150% of your base rate (time and a half)
• After that: 200% of your base rate (double time)
• Sundays: often 200% (double time) for all overtime hours
• Public holidays: 250% or higher

These are award minimums. Your EA or contract might be higher, but it can't go below the award floor.

Some employers try to offer time off in lieu (TOIL) instead of paying overtime rates. Under most awards, TOIL is allowed — but only if you genuinely agree in writing, the time off is taken at the overtime rate (so 1 hour of overtime at time-and-a-half = 1.5 hours off), and you can request payment instead if you haven't taken the TOIL within a certain period.

If your boss says "we don't pay overtime here" and you're covered by an award — that's wage theft. Plain and simple. Wage theft is now a criminal offence under the Fair Work Act, carrying penalties of up to $7.825 million for companies and prison time for individuals.

Use our overtime pay calculator to work out exactly what you're owed.

If the overtime request is unreasonable, you can refuse. And under section 340 of the Fair Work Act, your employer can't take adverse action against you for exercising that right — no sacking, no demotion, no roster changes designed to punish you.

Here's how to do it properly:

1. Be upfront and put it in writing. Don't just not show up. Send a message: "I'm not available to work the additional hours on [date] due to [reason]. I believe this request involves unreasonable additional hours under section 62 of the Fair Work Act."

2. Give genuine reasons. You don't need to write an essay, but reasons like fatigue, family commitments, health concerns, or insufficient notice all carry weight under the legislation.

3. Be consistent. If you've happily worked overtime every Saturday for two years and suddenly refuse with no reason, that's harder to justify. Context matters.

4. Know that retaliation is illegal. If your employer cuts your hours, changes your roster, or threatens your job because you refused unreasonable overtime, that's an adverse action claim under Part 3-1 of the Fair Work Act. The onus is on the employer to prove they didn't act for a prohibited reason.

If you're being pressured into unreasonable overtime and you're not sure what to do, ring the Fair Work Ombudsman on 13 13 94. They can give you confidential advice on your specific situation.