In Germany, working hours must be recorded. But plans for concrete rules are stalling in the traffic light coalition. And the FDP is pushing for an end to the eight-hour day in its current form.
After years of little time recording, control and paperwork when working remotely or in the home office, a kind of digital time clock is returning. Time recording is mandatory for Germany’s companies, offices and administrations – this fundamental decision by the Federal Labor Court has been in effect for two years. But a reaction from the legislature is still pending. Instead, the FDP is insisting on an end to the eight-hour day – with the goal of economic turnaround.
What the highest German labor judges decided
There is an obligation to record working hours in Germany, according to the decision of the Federal Labor Court of September 2022 (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 so-called time clock ruling of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) of 2019 and the German Occupational Safety and Health Act.
According to the ECJ, EU countries are obliged to introduce an objective, reliable and accessible system for recording working hours. This should help to curb excessive working hours and to observe rest periods. Trade unionists argue that the downside of trust-based work is largely unpaid overtime. Gallner said in the hearing: “Time recording is also protection against exploitation by others and self-exploitation.”
What applies in everyday working life
With the decision on the time recording requirement, the “whether” has been decided, stresses the BAG President. The “how” can be clarified by law or through agreements between employers and employees, as she told the German Press Agency in Erfurt. “We have found out that the works councils have the right to initiate this.”
According to the German Working Hours Act, before the Supreme Court’s decision, only overtime and Sunday work had to be documented, not the entire working time. The Federal Labor Court did not base its decision on the Working Hours Act, but on the Occupational Safety and Health Act. According to Paragraph 3, employers are already obliged to “introduce a system with which the working hours worked by employees can be recorded.” A dispute quickly arose over an amendment to the Working Hours Act, which would define how working hours should be recorded in practice.
What Labor Minister Heil is doing
The SPD in the Bundestag also campaigned for a new law – because overtime is often not recorded and paid for today. However, business associations and the FDP see the “time clock ruling” as contradicting a modern, flexible working world.
The person responsible in the federal government is the Minister of Labor, Hubertus Heil. The SPD politician had announced a speedy solution – and presented a first draft of the law just over a year ago. At the employers’ conference in the autumn, the minister asserted that he did not want to reintroduce the time clock.
The government has still not dealt with the issue. “Internal government discussions are currently taking place on the legal design of the recording obligation,” said a spokeswoman for the Heil Ministry. The traffic light parliamentary group also said: “There is no new status.” The Ministry of Labor is referring to the Federal Labor Court – because: “The question of whether there is a recording obligation has been clarified,” said the Heil spokeswoman.
FDP: Eight-hour day “old dogma”
The debates following the latest growth package, which the government has tied up with the 2025 budget, also show why the traffic light coalition is having difficulty with innovations in this area. The partners are at odds on this issue, as they are on many social issues. Immediately after the coalition was saved by a budget agreement, the FDP in the Bundestag is pushing for an end to the eight-hour day for Germany’s employees in its current form.
The growth package is “an important first step in the right direction, which should be followed in the long term by a complete change from a maximum daily working time to a maximum weekly working time,” says FDP parliamentary group vice-chair Lukas Köhler. Today, employees’ working hours on a working day may not generally exceed eight hours – an “old dogma” for Köhler.
The coalition leaders had agreed on Friday night to exempt from taxes and contributions for overtime bonuses that exceed a weekly working time of 34 hours for collective bargaining employees or 40 hours for others.
Working time is recorded in eight out of ten
According to Gallner, the obligation to record working hours has been implemented. This affects the 35 million employees subject to social insurance contributions that exist in Germany according to the Federal Statistical Office. Gallner believes that the Working Hours Act still needs to be amended. “But in companies, employers and employees have often found tailor-made solutions to record working hours and thus also possible overtime,” says the BAG President.
80 percent of employees said that their working hours are recorded by the company or that they document them themselves. Gallner refers to information from the Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Figures from 2023 indicate “that the recording of working hours is somewhat more widespread than in 2021 and 2019,” the Federal Institute said in a report.
What will become of home office and trust-based working hours
Flexible models such as mobile working, home office or core working hours are not restricted by the Federal Labor Court’s decision, said Gallner. “All of that is possible. Trust-based working time models are not in danger, on the contrary.” The legal regulations also apply to this, such as an eleven-hour rest period per day or a maximum weekly working time of 48 hours. She was thus responding to the fears of some employers’ and business associations.
How Germany got on the EU’s “sinners list”
According to politicians and labor lawyers, Germany was on the verge of infringement proceedings by the EU due to the failure to implement the time recording requirement – as the only large member state. As far as they know, the Federal Republic is no longer on the “sinners’ list,” says Gallner.
Source: Stern
