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4 on 2 off vs 5 on 3 off
Both are eight-hour rotations that never line up with the week. The difference is the size of the pieces — and about two hours a week in your check.
4 on 2 off
Day shiftNight shift24-hour tourDay off
5 on 3 off
Day shiftNight shift24-hour tourDay off
| 4 on 2 off | vs | 5 on 3 off |
|---|---|---|
| The cycle | ||
| 8 hours | Shift length | 8 hours |
| 6 or 12 days | Cycle length | 8 or 16 days |
| 37.3 hours | Average week | 35 hours |
| 4 | Most shifts in a row | 5 |
| 2 days | Longest break | 3 days |
| Recovery | ||
| No | Three days off after every block | Yes |
| NoTwo days is thin | Enough time to reset after nights | Yes |
| Yes | Never more than four shifts in a row | No |
| Your week | ||
| No | Days off land on the same weekdays | No |
| No | A familiar five-day working block | Yes |
| YesAbout 20 | More shifts in a month | NoAbout 19 |
Short blocks or long breaks
4 on 2 off never asks for more than four shifts, and never gives more than two days off. 5 on 3 off asks for five and gives three. Neither cycle divides into seven, so on both patterns your days off walk through the week and weekends move.
Two days is the weak point
After four shifts, and especially after four nights, two days off is enough to catch up on sleep and not much else. The first day is mostly recovery; the second is the only one that feels like time off.
Three days changes that. It is the difference between resting and actually having a day, and it is why officers who have worked both usually name 5 on 3 off as the better break.
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The hours are not the same
4 on 2 off averages a little over thirty-seven hours a week. 5 on 3 off comes in at thirty-five. Two hours a week is not nothing over a year, and on both patterns the gap to forty tends to get filled with overtime, court and training rather than showing up as free time.
Full detail on each pattern: 4 on 2 off schedule · 5 on 3 off schedule
In Canada this is a bargaining question
Everything above holds either side of the border — the cycles are the cycles. What changes here is who decides, and what the two cost.
A Canadian service does not simply adopt a rotation. The schedule sits in the collective agreement as a compressed work week article, and the Toronto Police Association and OPP agreements both carry one. In the OPP's case the terms of a compressed work week agreement are themselves subject to the grievance procedure. So moving from 4 on 2 off to 5 on 3 off is not a decision a new inspector makes — it is bargained, and it stays until it is bargained again.
It also does not follow that a whole service runs one of them. The Toronto Police Association agreement carries a Shift Schedules schedule in the plural, so which one you work can depend on where you are posted. The answer is in the agreement.
What the province still decides
Both of these run the same shift length, so provincial overtime rules treat them alike — but the rules themselves differ. Ontario triggers overtime after 44 hours in a week and has no daily trigger. British Columbia triggers after 8 hours in a day or 40 in a week, with double time past 12. Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador calculate it at 1.5 times the minimum wage rather than your own rate. Where the cycle does not fit a calendar week, hours can be averaged over two to four weeks by written agreement — and in a unionised service, your union makes that agreement.
Checked 7 August 2026. Provincial rules are quoted from the Employment Standards Act of the province named and, for Quebec, from the CNESST; federal provisions from the Treasury Board agreements. Employment standards are amended and collective agreements are renegotiated — check the current text before relying on a threshold or a figure.
The shift schedule you actually work
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