Recording working hours is now mandatory: this now applies to employees and companies

Created: 05/12/2022 13:19

By: Patricia Huber

The Federal Labor Court has ruled that the recording of working hours is mandatory with immediate effect.

What that means for everyday life in companies.

Erfurt – A judgment by the Federal Labor Court will soon lead to changes in the everyday lives of many employees.

According to a recent ruling by the highest German labor court, all employees will have to record their working hours in the future.

But what does this mean for employees and their companies?

How quickly does the new regulation have to be implemented and what does that mean for trust-based working hours?

The most important questions and answers at a glance.

Time recording: What did the Federal Labor Court decide?

In Germany there is an obligation to record working hours (1ABR 22/21).

The President of the Federal Labor Court, Inken Gallner, justified the obligation of employers to systematically record the working hours of their employees with the interpretation of the German Occupational Health and Safety Act after the so-called time clock judgment of the European Court of Justice (ECJ).

"If you interpret the German Occupational Health and Safety Act with the stipulations of the European Court of Justice, then there is already an obligation to record working hours," Gallner said at the hearing.

According to the German Working Hours Act, only overtime and Sunday work has to be documented, not the entire working time.

However, the Federal Labor Court did not refer to the Working Hours Act, but to the Occupational Health and Safety Act.

What do companies need to change now?

Employers are now obliged to record the working hours of their employees.

However, they can also transfer this obligation to the employees themselves.

It doesn't matter whether the time recording is digital or in paper form, explains employment lawyer Gerhard Kronisch on LinkedIn.

Companies now have to set up solutions for “comprehensive working time recording”, agrees specialist lawyer Michael Kalbfus from the Noerr law firm in Munich.

Does the judgment now mean the end of trust-based working hours?

Experts expect that the BAG fundamental judgment will have an impact on the trust-based working time models that have often been practiced in business and administration up to now, including mobile work and home office, because there is more control with it.

"The question is whether regulations on trust-based working hours are still possible," says Gregor Thüsing, a professor of labor law in Bonn.

Other experts are more optimistic.

Court President Gallner said that after the ECJ ruling, Germany had leeway "about how, not whether, the recording of working hours".

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What are the consequences if companies continue not to record working hours?

"Anyone who fails to record the working hours of the staff is in any case acting unlawfully," explains lawyer Domenic Böhm from the Sylvenstein law firm in Munich.

So if you don't act accordingly, you're committing an offence.

“However, there is currently no ordinance that contains a reference to the fine regulations.

The legislature still has to create this,” Böhm makes clear.