Germany Mandates Digital Time Tracking as It Loosens 8-Hour Day for Unionized Employers
Published on 06/18/2026 at 14:35 | Redaktion boerse-global.de
Germany’s Federal Ministry of Labor has released a draft reform of the country’s Working Hours Act, introducing a sweeping obligation for all employers to electronically record staff working hours. The proposal, made public Thursday, also relaxes the traditional eight-hour daily limit — but only for companies bound by collective wage agreements.
Under the new rules, employers must log the start, end, and duration of each employee’s daily work on the same day using a digital system. The mandate follows a 2019 European Court of Justice ruling and a landmark 2022 decision by Germany’s Federal Labor Court, which together require systematic time tracking. Transition periods depend on company size: firms with more than 250 workers must comply immediately; those with 50 to 249 employees get two years; smaller outfits with five to 49 staff have up to five years. Businesses with fewer than ten employees may continue using paper records. Violations of the documentation duty carry fines of up to €30,000.
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The second pillar of the reform shifts the legal focus from daily to weekly maximum working hours for unionized workplaces. Where a tariff agreement exists, the collective bargaining parties can extend daily working time beyond the current eight-hour ceiling, provided the weekly upper limit is respected. The mandated 11-hour rest period between shifts can also be reduced or waived under such contracts. These flexibilities are conditional: the tariff deal must include specific measures to safeguard employee health. Companies without a collective agreement remain bound by the eight-hour standard.
Labor Minister Bärbel Bas said the draft implements pledges from the coalition government’s contract. The government aims to pass the law before the parliamentary summer recess as part of a larger legislative package.
Sector-specific exemptions are included. Bakeries may increase permissible work on Sundays and public holidays from three to five hours for production and to three hours for deliveries. Public libraries can deploy staff for up to six hours on those days.
Reaction has been mixed. Employer associations, including the metal industry’s Gesamtmetall, criticized the proposal as a step backward into old-style regulation, calling for broader flexibility that does not depend solely on collective bargaining. Employers’ president Rainer Dulger described the draft as “unacceptable.”
Trust-based working time arrangements remain possible in principle, but the employer must ensure that violations of rest periods or maximum hours are detected. The reform also proceeds against a backdrop of rising economic pressure. The government plans complementary tax relief for overtime hours that exceed full-time tariff norms.
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