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In September there was the first bombshell in Germany: The Federal Labor Court ruled that companies in Germany are now obliged to record the working hours of their employees. With the written justification in December 2022, the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs is now also under pressure to act.
Germany has actually been obliged to pass a law on working time recording since May 2019. This was decided by the European Court of Justice. So a law is actually long overdue.
Hubertus Heil, Federal Minister of Labour and Social Affairs, will present a draft law in April 2023 that would make electronic time recording mandatory. However, this must first go through the cabinet and the parliamentary process.
Until this law is passed, the obligation to record working hours, as proclaimed by the Federal Labor Court, will continue to apply.
You can find more information about what is now mandatory here.
Flexible working with structure – flexitime
The flexitime working time model is based on the concept Cell Phone Number Database of core working hours. This means that during flexitime, the employer specifies when employees must work (e.g. Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.). Whether this work takes place on-site in the office or can be carried out remotely in the home office is usually also specified.
However, during the flexible working hours or framework working hours that go beyond this, employees are allowed to organize their working hours themselves. This means that they can choose for themselves whether they want to come in earlier or leave later, or whether they prefer a regular time. The hours are then usually booked into a so-called flexible working time account and can be viewed at any time.
We have covered the topic of working time accounts in more detail here.
concerns about freedoms
Employees are now worried that time recording will mean they will lose their freedom of flexitime. Depending on how working hours are recorded, for example, they may have to clock in at the office using a chip. This means that working from home is no longer possible during flexitime. And the issue of 'control' can also cause concern.
The issue of the obligation to record working hours is being discussed so much because it is repeatedly noticeable that companies lack an overview of the current situation. Employers often do not know exactly how much and when their employees are working. This means they cannot fulfill their duty of care and violate the Working Hours Act.
In the end, the purpose of recording working hours is only to check that rules such as break times and rest periods are adhered to, that overtime is documented and that neither employees nor employers are exploited. This is especially important in flexible working time models such as flexitime, but also trust-based working hours.
Time recording with flexitime - how it can work
How do I reconcile flexitime with the obligation to record working hours without limiting the flexibility of the working models in my company? With the right tool, this is quite easy: whether mobile from home or stationary in the office - with digital time recording via app, employees can record their working hours at any time and from anywhere. The data is forwarded to the admin via a cloud and archived. Depending on the system, the app even creates an automatic time sheet at the end of the month.
The aim is to take as much work off your hands as possible as an employer. Instead of pen and paper that get lost, you have an app that automatically uploads all data to a cloud. And instead of worrying about data protection, you have software that meets all legal requirements.
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發表於 13:51:10