The daily working hours of employees in Germany are to be recorded electronically in the future. This is what a draft law from the Federal Ministry of Labor for a reform of the Working Time Act provides. The draft was presented to the German Press Agency on Tuesday. The “Süddeutsche Zeitung” had previously reported on it.
According to the draft, the collective bargaining partners should be able to agree on exceptions. They should deviate from the electronic form of daily recording of working hours and be able to allow manual recording in paper form.
With the legislative plans, the Ministry of Labor is reacting to rulings by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) and the Federal Labor Court (BAG), which had required recording of working hours.
According to the draft, the employer should be obliged to electronically record the beginning, end and duration of the daily working hours of the employees on the day of the work. However, the recording should also be able to be made by the employees themselves or by a third party, for example a supervisor.
According to the draft law, the judgment of the ECJ based on the Occupational Health and Safety Act should already be observed by employers in Germany after the BAG decision. The BAG has thus decided the question of “whether” the recording of working hours. However, there are still uncertainties about the “how”. It is the task of the legislature to clarify these uncertainties. (dpa)