Summarised Working Time in Lithuanian Restaurants
Summarised working time in a Lithuanian restaurant: the 52-hour week limit, 7-day rota notice, end-of-period overtime and the hour records to keep.
July: 50-hour weeks
In July your terrace is full every evening and the kitchen works 50-hour weeks. In November the same team is sent home early on a quiet Tuesday. A fixed 40-hour week does not fit that year. Lithuanian law has a working-time regime made for exactly this: suminė darbo laiko apskaita, summarised working time.
Under summarised working time, staff do not have to hit 40 hours every single week. What counts is the total over an accounting period of up to three months. Busy weeks and quiet weeks can balance each other out, as long as every rota stays inside a few hard limits and you settle the difference at the end of the period.
This guide is for the person who builds the rota in a restaurant, café or hotel kitchen. It covers what the Labour Code actually requires, a worked example of one cook's three months, what to record so the end-of-period settlement is easy, and what changed in November 2026.
Sources: Lithuanian Labour Code, Article 113 and Article 115.
What is summarised working time?
Every employee has a working-time norm, usually 40 hours a week. Most contracts spread it evenly: the same hours on the same days. Summarised working time keeps the norm but measures it over a longer accounting period. Under Article 113 of the Labour Code, that period can be up to three consecutive months.
So a cook on a 40-hour norm and a three-month period does not owe you 40 hours every week. They owe you the norm for the whole quarter. Some weeks are longer, some are shorter, and the rota decides which. That is why the regime suits restaurants: demand moves with the season, the weather, events and the day of the week.
Fixed working time
The norm is checked week by week. Anything over the agreed day or week is overtime straight away. Simple, but rigid when a Saturday wedding needs four extra hours.
Summarised working time
The norm is checked at the end of the accounting period. Long and short weeks can balance out. Staff work exactly the hours in the published rota, so the rota has to be planned carefully.
How do you introduce it?
Article 115 says summarised working time is introduced when it is necessary, after the information and consultation procedure with the works council, and taking into account the opinion of any trade union operating at the employer level. Set a clear accounting period and make sure each employee's working conditions reflect it. The State Labour Inspectorate (VDI) answers questions about setting it up correctly.
The rota rules you have to follow
Under summarised working time, people work the hours written in the shift rota. That makes the rota the legal centre of the whole regime. These are the rules from Article 115 of the Labour Code, rewritten as a checklist for whoever builds it:
November: 32-hour weeks
Publish the rota at least 7 days before it starts.
Staff must be told their shifts no later than seven days before the rota takes effect.
Change it only when you really have to.
A published rota may be changed only for reasons beyond the employer's control, with the employee warned at least two of their working days in advance.
Stay at or under 52 hours in any 7-day period.
The rota must not exceed 52 hours in any seven-day period. Work under a separate additional-work agreement and on-call time fall outside this specific rule.
Keep the average within the general limit.
Article 114 also limits the average working week, including overtime, to 48 hours per seven-day period. Long weeks need shorter ones around them.
Never schedule two shifts in a row.
Back-to-back double shifts are prohibited.
Spread hours as evenly as you can.
The employer must distribute working time across the period as evenly as possible and rotate shifts fairly between employees.
Let parents of young children choose.
People raising a child under three may choose their shift within two working days of it being announced; people raising a child under seven may, where possible.
Agree how rotas are approved.
Rotas are approved by the administration, following an approval procedure agreed with the works council (or the employer-level trade union), or as set in a collective agreement.
Latest update (November 2026): Labour Code amendments adopted by the Seimas on 25 June 2026 took effect on 1 November 2026. One of them matters for December rotas: when the working day before a public holiday is shortened by one hour, that hour is now explicitly paid. See the consolidated Labour Code on e-tar.lt for the exact wording, or Ecovis's summary of the package.
If you already plan hours per person rather than per week, our guide to shift management shows how to set standing hours once and handle a sick call without breaking the plan.
Example: one cook's summer quarter
Tomas is a line cook on a 40-hour norm. His restaurant uses summarised working time with a three-month accounting period from June to August. To keep the numbers simple, we treat the period as 13 full weeks, which gives a norm of 520 hours. Your real norm depends on the calendar and public holidays, so let your accountant confirm it.
| Weeks | Rota per week | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| 6 peak weeks (terrace season) | 5 shifts of 10 h = 50 h | 300 |
| 7 quieter weeks | 4 shifts of 8 h = 32 h | 224 |
| Total for the period | Norm: 13 × 40 h = 520 h | 524 |
No single week goes over 52 hours, and the quiet weeks bring the average for the quarter down to about 40 hours, well within the 48-hour average. The rota is legal. At the end of August, Tomas has worked 4 hours more than his norm.
If he worked more than the norm
The extra hours are paid as overtime. Or, if Tomas asks, the extra time multiplied by 1.5 is added to his annual leave: 4 extra hours become 6 hours of leave.
If the rota gave him less than the norm
Say a rainy August left him at 512 hours. Because the shortfall came from the working-time regime the employer set, he is paid half of his pay for the 8 missing hours.
How pay works during the period: pay follows the hours actually worked. Article 115 also lets you pay a steady monthly wage throughout the period and settle against the real hours in its last month, which is easier for staff who want a predictable payslip.
What to record, and where Loopapa fits
The end-of-period settlement is only as good as your records. For every employee on summarised working time, keep the published rota and every change to it (with the date you announced it), the hours actually worked each day, overtime and how it was approved, leave and absences, and who covered whose shift. Employees also have the right to see their own working-time records.
Paper rotas and a WhatsApp group can hold the plan, but not what really happened. That is the gap Loopapa closes: the hours you plan and the hours people actually clock live in the same place.
Planned and worked hours, one place
Standing hours per person
Set each person's hours once: weekly, a pattern that repeats every few weeks, split days or one-off days. Loopapa warns you when you change someone's hours at short notice.
Clock-in against the plan
Staff clock in and out from their phone with a GPS check, and get a reminder at the start and end of their own hours.
Overtime rules per person
Choose how time outside the plan counts for each employee: Counted automatically, Needs approval, Not counted, or Scheduled hours only.
Sick calls and cover
Staff request leave from the app. You ask one person or a group to cover, and the first to accept takes the shift, along with that person's tasks.
Counted time in one place
Regular, overtime and pending time sit in My Record for each person and in Team Record for the manager.
Ready for the accountant
Export payroll-ready timesheets as CSV or PDF at the end of the accounting period and settle the norm from the real hours.
Working-time rules for your country
Today Loopapa records planned and worked hours, but it does not yet check them against the Labour Code. We are building country-specific working-time rules, starting with Lithuania: a warning when a rota goes over 52 hours in any seven days, and each person's balance against the accounting-period norm. We will update this article when it is live.
Latest update (November 2026): a proposal to allow summarised working time only in continuously operating businesses, and elsewhere only through a collective agreement, has been debated in the Seimas (draft amendment to Article 115). Employers' organisations opposed it (LVK letter, September 2025). As of November 2026 it is not part of the Labour Code in force: Article 115 still allows the regime when necessary, after consulting the works council. We will update this note if that changes.
This article explains the general rules of the Lithuanian Labour Code. It is not legal advice; for your own contracts and rotas, ask your accountant, a lawyer or the State Labour Inspectorate.
Summarised working time: frequently asked questions
How long can the accounting period be under summarised working time?
How many hours can a restaurant employee work in one week under summarised working time?
How far in advance must the shift rota be published?
What happens to extra hours at the end of the accounting period?
Can an app handle summarised working-time records?
Plan the rota and keep the real hours in one place
Standing hours per person, clock-in from the phone, overtime rules, sick-call cover and timesheets your accountant can use at the end of every accounting period. Priced per location, not per person.
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