Same-month compensation, a written individual agreement of up to 6 months and a collective one of up to 12: the three regimes, what happens to an uncompensated hour, and the trail to keep.
Three regimes, three deadlines
An hours bank swaps overtime payment for equivalent rest, and the CLT provides three ways to do it, each with its own window (article 59).
Same-month compensation can be arranged even tacitly: an extra hour on one day is offset on another, within the same month. A written individual agreement allows compensation within 6 months. A collective agreement allows up to 12 months.
Past the deadline the hour does not disappear: it goes back to being overtime and is paid with its premium, at least 50%. Same balance, different cost.
What has to be in writing
The agreement defines the regime, the compensation window, the daily limits and how the balance is communicated to the employee. Without that document, the company is paying overtime late, not running an hours bank.
The limit of 2 overtime hours a day still applies, and a compensated working day cannot exceed 10 hours. An hours bank is not a licence for an elastic schedule.
Unhealthy work with an extended day requires prior authorisation from the competent authority. The hours bank does not replace that authorisation.
Balance, statement and the effect on termination
The employee has to be able to see their own balance, and the statement needs to show what went in, what was compensated and what expires when. A balance only HR knows is a balance that gets disputed.
On termination, a positive balance is paid as overtime with its premium, not simply zeroed. A negative balance, where the agreement allows it, follows the deduction cap and good faith: deducting negative hours accumulated because there was no work available is a fast route to reversal in court.
Where hours banks usually go wrong
Losing sight of the deadline is the first problem: with no expiry control per batch, the company discovers the liability when someone asks for a statement. The second is mixing regimes, with part of the headcount on an individual agreement and part on a collective one, without separating windows.
The third is treating compensation as an excused absence: a compensated day has to appear as compensation on the timesheet, with the balance drawn down, otherwise the account never closes and the same day gets used twice.
An hours bank with a controlled deadline
In Avos the bank has a regime and a window per agreement, the balance updates from the treated timesheet, and an hour that expires without compensation enters payroll as overtime, with a warning before it becomes cost. The employee sees the statement in their own access, which settles most questions without going through HR.