Correct working time recording as a success factor for employers
By ensuring that working time is recorded correctly, employers can avoid significant penalties. Employees are better protected from being overworked and the potentially resulting negative (health) consequences. Correct working time records also contribute to efficient working conditions and enhance mutual trust between employees and employers. The obligations for employers and the benefits that full legal compliance can bring are outlined below.
What should be considered regarding working time recording?
Employers are obliged to record the exact start and end of daily working hours, and daily rest breaks. There are only exemptions in very specific individual cases.
Based on an agreement between employees and employers, the obligation to keep records of working hours can be transferred to employees. Employers nevertheless remain responsible for instructing employees to properly record their working time, review the records and retain the records for evidentiary purposes. Employers also remain liable for incomplete, missing or incorrect records.
The form in which working hours are to be recorded is not regulated by law. In practice, working hours are recorded by using a digital time-recording system or Excel spreadsheets.
What are the advantages of correct working time recording?
- Employee satisfaction and employee well-being
Correct working-time records enhance the satisfaction and health of employees. Correct working time records can help to identify potential overworking of individual employees at an early stage. This enables employers to take early action (e.g., evaluation of the area of responsibility, evaluation of work processes, evaluation of the employee's efficiency, etc.) to prevent employees overworking and having health-related absences. This ensures sustainable staffing.
- Correct compensation of employees
Recording time to the minute is the only way to ensure that employees receive fair and correct remuneration. This is because the amount of certain surcharges depends on the time at which the work was performed. Ensuring that employees are paid correctly and fairly also helps to avoid penalties (see below).
- Efficiency and productivity
If the workload of individual employees is precisely documented, it can be compared with the workload of other employees. Employers are therefore able to check the efficiency and productivity of individual employees, and prevent unequal treatment.
If employers can trust their employees to record their working hours correctly, it is possible to organize the working hours of these employees more flexibly, e.g., by agreeing on flexitime or allowing them to work from home.
However, if employees record their working hours incorrectly (e.g., by recording an earlier start or later end to their working hours), this can damage confidence in the employees and lead to legal consequences for them, including dismissal for good cause. This also applies if the actual working time was not even extended, but only the actual position of the working time was not recorded correctly (e.g., recording working time in the home office in the morning and actual working time in the evening). Simply recording the incorrect position of working hours is sufficient to severely undermine the employer's trust in the employee. This particularly applies to employees who work from home, as they enjoy the employer's special trust.
Employers can avoid financial consequences by complying with the legal provisions regarding recording their working time. These are primarily the following:
If working time record obligations are breached, administrative penalties in the amount of EUR 20 to EUR 436 may be imposed for incorrect records. For a complete lack of working time records, administrative penalties of EUR 72 to EUR 1,815, or — in the event of a repeated offense — EUR 145 to EUR 1,815 may be imposed. If other major protection provisions regarding working time are breached (such as compliance with the daily rest break of 30 minutes, as well as compliance with maximum daily and weekly working hours, and minimum rest periods), further administrative penalties may be imposed. Due to the fact that penalties are imposed per violation and per employee, penalties may be cumulated. This can lead to significant penalties.
If, due to insufficient or missing working time records, the obligation to pay remuneration in full is also violated (so-called underpayment), further administrative penalties of EUR 20,000 up to EUR 400,000 may be imposed.
How can correct working time recording be guaranteed in the company?
To ensure that working time is recorded correctly in the company, the working time recording system should consist of the following elements:
- A policy regarding working time recording.
- Correct remuneration according to the recorded working hours.
- Internal assignment of responsibilities and actual monitoring of compliance with working time (recording) regulations.
- Regular analysis of any deficiencies in working time records.
- Regular training on working time (recording) regulations.
- Responses to repeated or serious violations through labour law measures (e.g. warnings, dismissals for good cause, etc).
Please let us know if you have any questions regarding working time records.
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