Working Hours, Overtime and the Right to Disconnect in Italy: Scheduling Across US and Italy Time Zones

US teams often hire in Italy and then run it like a US team. Calls land late in the Italian evening. Slack pings arrive at night. Overtime is treated as a favor. This causes friction fast.

This article explains how to think about working hours in Italy and how to set norms that work across the Atlantic. It is a practical guide, not legal advice. Specific limits depend on the national collective agreement (CCNL) that applies to the role, so always check it.

Hours are set by law and by the CCNL  

Italy regulates working time through national law and then fills in the details through the CCNL. The CCNL decides many things you would expect to find in an offer letter:

• The normal weekly schedule.
• How overtime is defined and paid.
• Rest breaks during the day.
• Rules for night work, weekends and holidays.
• Whether time off can be banked instead of paid.

The practical point is simple. Do not copy your US handbook. Find out which CCNL covers your employee, and read the working time chapter before you agree on a schedule.

Overtime is not informal  

In the US, exempt employees absorb extra hours without a second thought. In Italy, extra hours are a defined category. They usually need to be requested or authorized, tracked, and compensated in the way the CCNL says. That can mean extra pay, a pay premium, or time off in lieu.

Three habits help:

1. Ask for approval before overtime, in writing, even by a short message.
2. Record the hours. Do not rely on memory at month end.
3. Tell the employee how extra hours will be compensated before they happen.

If your company culture expects regular after-hours work, say so in the contract terms and price it into the cost of the hire. Surprises here become disputes later.

Rest is a protected value  

Italian employment law gives real weight to rest between working days and to weekly rest. A manager in New York who schedules a late call for an Italian employee and then expects an early start the next day may be creating a rest problem. This is not just a courtesy issue. It can become a compliance issue for the employer.

The lesson for cross-border teams is to plan the whole day, not only the call. If the Italian employee works late for you on Tuesday, the Wednesday schedule has to account for it.

The right to disconnect  

Italy has recognized disconnection mainly in the context of remote work, often called smart working or agile work. The idea is that an employee can step away from digital tools outside working hours without penalty. In practice, the written remote work agreement is where employers describe rest periods and the technical and organizational measures that make disconnection real.

You do not need a long policy. You need clear norms that your US managers will follow:

• Define core hours when the employee is expected to be reachable.
• State that messages sent outside those hours do not require an answer until the next working period.
• Do not reward or punish people based on out-of-hours responsiveness.
• Use scheduled send for messages written in the US evening.

The last point matters most. Many US managers write at the end of their day, which is the middle of the Italian night. A scheduled send costs nothing and removes the problem.

Scheduling across time zones  

The overlap between the US and Italy is narrow. For East Coast teams, it sits in the Italian afternoon. For West Coast teams, it is smaller still, and it pushes into the Italian evening. This is where most problems start.

Use these norms:

• Protect the overlap. Put live meetings in the shared window and keep that window for work that truly needs a conversation.
• Make the rest asynchronous. Status updates, reviews and decisions should work through written documents. Record important calls and share notes.
• Rotate the pain. If a recurring meeting must fall outside normal hours for one side, alternate which side bears it. Do not make the Italian employee the permanent late-night participant.
• Set an end time for the Italian day. Agree on the latest hour a regular call can run. Treat exceptions as exceptions.
• Be careful at clock changes. The US and Europe shift their clocks on different dates, so the gap between the two changes for a short period. Check recurring invites during those weeks.
• Respect local holidays. Italy has public holidays that do not match US ones. Keep a shared calendar so no one schedules a launch on a day when the Italian team is off.

Put it in writing  

A short working-time note, attached to the employment documents or shared as an internal guide, prevents most conflicts. It should cover core hours, the meeting window, how overtime is approved and paid, and the disconnection norm. Keep it to a page.

This also helps your finance team. Predictable hours mean predictable overtime cost, and fewer disputes mean fewer legal expenses. If you use an Employer of Record (EOR), ask your provider to confirm the CCNL rules for the specific role so your policy matches what the contract requires.

The short version  

In Italy, working time is structured, tracked and tied to the CCNL. Overtime needs a process. Rest is protected. Disconnection is expected, especially in remote work. For US teams, the fix is mostly habit: protect a small overlap, work asynchronously, and stop treating after-hours availability as a default.

To see what an Italian hire would cost your company, try the cost calculator.