Recording of working hours: survey shows who is in favor – some fear control by employers
Created: 09/29/2022, 15:30
By: Carina Blumenroth
The Federal Labor Court (BAG) ruled in September that all working hours must be recorded.
A change for employees and companies.
Clock in in the morning, clock out in the evening – that could be the case for employees in Germany in the future.
Judges at the Federal Labor Court (BAG) in Erfurt created facts this month where those responsible from business and politics were still discussing: The hours are being written down again.
It could go back to the time clock.
"A bang," says labor law professor Gregor Thüsing.
But what do the workers say?
In a survey, the job platform
Indeed
brought around 1,000 participants to the recording of working hours.
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Timekeeping: That's what employees think about it
Timekeeping 'rather important' | 30.5 percent |
Timekeeping 'very important' | 40.4 percent |
Around 71 percent of the employees surveyed stated that recording their working hours is useful and important.
Many (36.5 percent) believe that overtime pay can work better this way, 23 percent hope that overtime will be reduced more effectively.
However, according to German law, overtime and work on Sundays were recorded even before the Federal Labor Court's ruling in September.
The results were sometimes surprising for those responsible, as Indeed labor market economist Dr.
Annina Hering says in a press release: “The decision to make time recording mandatory at work initially seemed to meet with mixed reactions.
However, our recent survey suggests that most workers will welcome it.
A clear trend can also be seen in our job advertisements: companies are increasingly citing time tracking as a benefit.” In the past three years in particular, the keyword 'time tracking' in job advertisements has risen by almost six percent.
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The advantages of working time recording
Better proof of the hours worked: 47.3 percent
Better overview of the hours worked: 42.9 percent
The main advantages that the interviewed employees gain from recording their working hours is that they themselves have an overview of their weekly or monthly working hours and the employer can also see how many hours were worked.
Worried about time tracking?
Additional effort due to systemic recording | 11.5 percent |
Loss of time management and more control by employers | 15.4 percent |
Difficult time recording when working remotely | 15.4 percent |
The participants take a critical view of the additional hurdles they face when recording their working hours.
In addition to additional work and a possible loss of free time management and mobile working, some also fear control by the employer.
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An example of a digital recording of working hours.
Some still record working hours manually.
© KMKrause/Imago
Recording working hours: how is this currently achieved?
Working time is recorded | 63.1 percent |
No recording or no indication | 36.9 percent |
Almost two-thirds of the employees surveyed are already recording their working hours.
However, there are clear differences in how this is noted.
At around 19.7 percent, working hours are recorded manually with pen and paper.
“Stamping in” purely electronically with a card or chip works for 16.7 percent.
26.7 percent can record their working hours via a digital time recording system.
Especially if mobile working is to continue to be possible, the approach with a digital tool will probably have to be expanded for employees.
Flexible working and new work models must be linked to time recording: "For the further implementation and acceptance of time recording, it is certainly important
to reconcile the advantages of the regulation with new working concepts and models," says Dr.
Anna Hering.
